THE GHANA Enterprises Agency (GEA) has extended the application period for the GH1₵45 million COVID-19 response grant which was opened on June 21, 2021.

GEA, via its website, announced the deadline extension from July 21 to August 11, 2021 with the intention of providing more time for qualified SME to meet criteria for the grant that could provide financial support in excess of GH₵100,000.

The scheme was an initiative under the World Bank-funded Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP) which seeks to support government’s agenda of promoting private investments through the growth of non-resource-based sectors of the economy.

The scheme has so far been well patronised as over 1,000 applications were reported to have been received by the GEA, barely two weeks after the portal opened for application.

This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer of the GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, at a recent stakeholders’ forum to discuss the grant where she indicated that the essence of the grant was to grow enterprises that had shown signs of sustainability and resilience.

She noted that the government has intended to use the scheme as a means of sustaining businesses, encouraging innovation, improving competitiveness and promoting growth, which were all geared towards sustaining the economy that has suffered a setback due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some non-resource-based sectors most likely to benefit from the scheme included tourism, agro-processing, manufacturing, textiles and garments, food and beverages, tourism and hospitality, pharmaceutical and personal protective equipment (PPE) companies.

Enterprises with employable size of six to 100 employees and a sales turnover of GH₵150,000 to GH₵18 million are eligible for the grants with the exclusion of business incorporated as at March 2020.

Interested applicants are also required to among other things; submit a business and/or personal Tax Identification Number (TIN) with all shareholders and directors of the business having valid personal Tax Identification Numbers (TIN).

Also required are business registration certificates or certificate of incorporation, either business bank statements, financial statements or statement of affairs for the years 2019 and 2020.

The GEA expects that information supplied for the assessment of grant requests would be accurate as it reserved the right to eliminate or terminate any grants arrangements should due diligence report prove any falsification of statements or claims.

“Further, the GEA may decide to prosecute for fraud, any false, inaccurate, or misleading information supplied on the grant application form,” GEA noted via its website.