As part of efforts to boost investment avenues and offer financial opportunities to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Venture Capital Trust Fund has signed an investment agreement with two VC fund Managers to initiate capital deployment of GHS 35 million to some SMEs in Ghana.
The undersigning VC Fund Managers are Mirepa Investment Advisors and Wangara Green Ventures
Venture Capital Trust Fund believes the singing of the two VC fund managers will help maintain resilience in the investment sector and for innovative packages to clients.
Speaking during the signing ceremony here in Accra, the Chief Executive of Venture Capital Trust Fund, Yaw Owusu- Bempong said his outfit is committed to building talented young individuals who are able to combine industry and operational know-how with growth investment expertise to partner exciting SMEs and talented group of entrepreneurs in strategic sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
He also disclosed that a total of GHS 60 million under 2 months has been set aside towards SME financing.
He further expressed optimism that by close of the year 2022 they have projected to disburse about GHS 100 million.
“Today, we (Venture Capital Trust Fund) are signing an investment agreement with two VC Fund Managers to deploy GHS 35 million to SMEs in Ghana. This makes total capital deployment towards SME finance to GHS 60 million in less than 2 months! We intend to deploy about GHS 100 million by year-end, so stay tuned.”
“We are selective in our choice of Fund Managers through a competitive process and have backed MCSF and WGV for their industry knowledge and also able to provide the needed support to identified SMEs whiles accelerating growth. We look forward to working with them to grow our local business, establish sustainable SMEs and generate success for all our stakeholders and the planet.”
The Chief Executive also seized the opportunity to announce the ambitious targets of the company.
“Over the next five years, Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) intends to deploy GHS 1.5 billion to support SMEs. With this amount, we intend to leverage about GHS 5 for every GHs 1 spent, thereby increasing the capital pool to SMEs to about GHS 7.5 Billion. This is an ambitious plan and calls for all key stakeholders in the finance industry, and other international agencies, to partner with the Trust Fund to make this plan a reality.”
In his remarks, the Director, the Financial Sector Division, Ministry of Finance said the signing of the investment was timely as the country battling a global economic crisis.
“I deem this investment by Venture Capital Trust Fund timely, especially because it comes at a time when the country continues to battle with external factors that have made economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic challenging. The recent address by H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on the steps government is undertaking to restore the economy has yielded some positive impact, however, we still have a long way to go as the economic downturn and negative impact on businesses and job losses linger on.”