The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh says over three hundred enterprises in the country have benefitted from the first phase of the Covid-19 Response Grant.
Mrs Yankey-Ayeh noted that the Agency has received over two billion Ghanaian cedis for the past four years from the government to provide grants for Small, and Medium-scale Enterprises, and SMEs in the country.
She was speaking during the Eastern Regional GEA Stakeholder Engagement of the COVID-19 Response Grant Programme in Koforidua.
The event was aimed at educating SME owners in the region on the requirements of the second phase of the grant.
She encouraged SME operators to apply for the grant.
Mrs Yankey-Ayeh advised beneficiaries of the grant to utilise the fund to expand their businesses in order to create employment for the youth. The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong noted that the second phase of the grant is focused on the youth, people with disability and female-owned enterprises.
The Grant Manager at GEA, Sam Agbaga, noted that the second phase of the grant is also focused on enterprises that have at least a minimum of six employees with their previous revenue of ¢180,000.