BUSAC Funds More Projects In March

By Samuel Boadi



THE BUSINESS Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) is receiving proposals from small, medium and large-scale enterprises that have viable projects but lack the wherewithal and professional guidance to execute them.

This is aimed at paving the way for the Fund to release the second phase of its project funds by the early part of March this year. It will thus close the yawning gap between its phase I and II projects over the next 5 years.

Dale Rachmeler, Manager of BUSAC, who disclosed this recently said beneficiaries would be selected from all sectors of the economy - small, medium and large scale businesses, road construction companies, textile industries, small scale farming associations, mining, petty traders as well as the media.

In Phase I (2004-2009), 362 grants were approved for business associations in all 10 regions of Ghana totalling $8.2 million, Dr Rachmeler stated.

Calling for more multilateral support for the fund, he said BUSAC had created an application system to receive, screen, evaluate, select, approve and verify grant with the help of its professional technical assistance team of long-term and short-term consultants. This is to enable the long term sustainability of the projects.

BUSAC was originally launched by DANIDA as part of the broader Business Sector Programme Support but now attracts support from DFID which is pooling its support through an arrangement with DANIDA and USAID which is willing to support export related advocacy projects. The arrangement to involve DFID and USAID is covered under a Memorandum of Understanding agreed and signed in March 2005.

The fund management has been contracted by DANIDA to COWI who appointed Dr. Dale Rachmeler as the project manager. He is assisted by a team recruited locally.

The fund is accessible through a competitive demand-driven mechanism and transparent selection of the best advocacy actions proposed by associations within Ghana’s private sector.

BUSAC Fund finances, through grants, up to 90 percent of the cost of the advocacy actions that are selected in each “Call for Application.” The actions are then implemented by the grantees with the help of service providers they may have chosen to complement their own.

Speaking at a ceremony to close the first phase Tuesday in Accra, Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, has expressed government’s impression of the performance of the BUSAC Fund stating it has contributed immensely to growth in the various sectors.

She said the fund had empowered SMEs to sensitize government on the various constraints and challenges that confronted the sector culminating in several changes and amendments to government policies. Noting that the private sector currently was driving government policies and programmes, she expressed the hope that there would be enough funding to support phase II of the project.

Joyce Aryee, Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Chamber of Mines, commended the BUSAC Fund’s contribution particularly to the improvement of the mining sector which has seen the reduction in various constraints that confronted the sector.

Among other things, Dr Aryee said her outfit was advocating for a standardized compensation mechanism to reduce litigation among stakeholders in the industry and further protect BUSAC funded projects in mining communities.