Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) Kosi Yankey-Ayeh has noted that the hotel association in Ghana provided incomplete data on its members, hence the inability to access the stimulus package earmarked by the government to support businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Her comments come after the President of Ghana Hotels Association, Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamekeh, revealed that hotels in Ghana will be laying off more workers in the coming days following their inability to access the stimulus package.
The government devoted an amount of GH¢600 million as stimulus package to support businesses deal with the impact of Covid-19.
But Dr Ackah-Nyamekeh told Alfred Occansey on the Sunrise morning show on 3FM Thursday, August 6 that two months after members of his Association applied to benefit from the package, they have not yet received any positive feedback.
This has further pushed them into difficulties in the wake of the effect of the pandemic, he said.
“Two months after the applications commenced, we are yet to receive anything and the two months after the applications means five months into the pandemic.
“We have been on the roof shouting but the excuse that we have been given is that they started with the micro businesses, those who requested for the GH¢1000 and the GH¢1500. They are also talking of the numbers that applied, hundreds of thousands and so they are having to move in phases.
“Right from the beginning we said the idea of giving the NBSSI that money to share was a non-starter. They promised that once you get the application in two weeks, you will get the disbursement but two months and no show. As we speak now some of the hotels are talking of redundancy. From March up to June, we all play the wait and see game that maybe government will come in but it is becoming obvious,” he stated.
But responding to this also in an interview on the same programme on Thursday, August 13, Mrs Yankey-Ayeh, said: “We said we were starting with the micro businesses and majority of the beneficiaries from the hotel industry do not fall in the micro. So, from that process forward we had not moved on with them because they do not fall under the micro.”
She added: “So when we got into the disbursement for the small and medium businesses, we reached out to the majority of their associations because we realized that majority of them who have applied did not have data or that the data they proided was not sufficient.
“We also realized that during the disbursement, even though some of the associations were giving us data they said they do not have all the names of their association members
“Looking at the challenges we had faced in the micro aspect and to avoid these challenges going forward, we asked that they must provide data on the members of the association who applied.
“I am not sure the hotel association gave us all their members. Yes, they gave us data but like majority of the associations, the data that was provided was not complete,” she said.
By Laud Nartey| 3news.com|Ghana