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| Vice President Amissah-Arthur with Diana Layfield(middle) and other Stanchart executives in a group photo after the meeting |
The government will unveil a
number of initiatives, in the next budget to support the private sector, says Vice
President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur.
“We will request cooperation
and partnership of the financial institutions in undertaking these
initiatives,” he said, without giving details of the initiatives.
The Vice President made the
call during a meeting with executives of Standard Chartered Bank, led by Diana
Layfield, Standchart’s Regional Chief Executive Officer for Africa, at the Flagstaff
House in Accra yesterday.
He said there was a need to
have the low inflation rate in the country translated into jobs and business
growth.
The Vice President therefore called
for increased support from financial institutions towards improving access to
credit to aid effective business growth across the country.
He said partnering the
government in that regard would also ensure that the cost of credit was reduced
to enable small scale businesses to secure the needed support to develop for
the benefit of the economy.
In that regard, he charged
Standard Chartered Bank, and local banks to spearhead the reduction in cost of
credit provided for the SMEs.
He lauded the relations between
the government and Stanchart, and expressed optimistic that more dividends
would accrue from the partnership for the benefits of the local economy.
Mrs. Layfield, for her part
commended Ghana for the steady economic growth over the years, saying the bank
was impressed about the gains.
She is in Accra for the
bank’s regional meeting, and according to her, the choice of Ghana for the
meeting reflects the bank’s confidence in the Ghanaian economy.
She said the bank was
impressed about profile of Ghana’s economic prospects, and declared the bank’s
intention to increase its investment in Ghana.
“Ghana’s economic reforms are
hugely encouraging for the bank,” she said, and assured the government of more
collaboration.
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