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The National Board and Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has disbursed some GH¢1m to micro-business owners in the country. This amount is part of the special fund set up by the government to cushion micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from the impact of the coronavirus disease ( COVID-19 ). On Wednesday, June 24, 2020, the NBSSI begun the disbursement of GH¢1 million to 1,000 applicants under the first tranche of the GH¢1 billion
Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) business support scheme.
They include food sellers, hairdressers, tailors, among others. The beneficiaries, who met the rigorous criteria designed by the NBSSI, received up to GH¢2,000 via mobile money under what is known as the Adom Micro-Soft Loans, for micro-enterprises. The special fund is categorised into Anidaso and Adom special loans, with an interest rate of three percent, payable within two years after a moratorium of one year.

The Ministry of Finance has revealed that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) successfully registered 1,394,842 taxpayers in the year 2019. This brought the total number of taxpayers registered with Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) to 3,394,488 as of 31st December 2019, resulting from the drive to improve tax administration and expand the tax base. These were contained in the ministry’s budget performance report for 2019 presented to Parliament on April 8, 2020 by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta . Presenting the Finance Committee’s report on the budget performance, Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah said the Finance Ministry in the year under review “undertook some major technological initiatives to offer enhanced online services to taxpayers.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), Mr Felix Mensah Nii Anang-La, has disclosed that the assembly recorded 18 percent growth in revenue generation in the 2019 fiscal year. This, according to him, was due to the deployment of robust revenue mobilization techniques. Addressing the first ordinary meeting of the first session of the 8th assembly here yesterday, Mr Anang-La said the assembly raked in revenue of GH¢35.39 million out of a budget of GH¢44.50 million. He explained that money collected was made up of internally generated funds of GH¢23.29 million and Government of Ghana grants and other transfers amounting to GH¢12.10 million. Mr Anang-La said the assembly incurred an expenditure of GH¢35.70 million on programmes and projects within the same period. He said to boost revenue mobilization, the assembly would introduce mobile money payment system.

About 1000 small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the country are expected to benefit from a nine-million dollar World Bank grant. The funds would go into developing tourism sites and destinations, infrastructure and capacity building. The support is an initial amount from the World Bank to revitalise the tourism and hospitality industry hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) estimates that about 80 per cent of the small and medium scale enterprises have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. Prospective applicants must be individuals and Ghanaian-owned businesses with physical presence in Ghana and registered with the Registrar General’s Department and associations within the tourism industry. At the launch of the Grant Scheme, under the Ghana Tourism Development Project, in Accra on Wednesday, Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, said prospective applicants could submit the Expression of Interest from today, June 24 to July 8,2020.

Access to the internet has the power to change lives and bridge inequalities and MTN Group reached a significant milestone by recording 100 million active data users on its networks across Africa and the Middle East. “We believe that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life,” said MTN Group President and CEO Rob Shuter. “We are delighted to have connected 100 million of our customers to the power of the internet as we have increased data coverage and reduced the cost to communicate across our markets.” MTN has a total base of more than 257 million customers in 21 markets. Growth through scaling data and digital services is central to its strategy. The group is overcoming the barriers to greater mobile internet adoption by extending its 3G and 4G coverage, accelerating smartphone adoption and transforming prices.

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