Coronavirus: MP to support 700 market women with GH¢1 million in interest-free loans

• Small businesses across the country have been affected largely by the Coronavirus pandemic

• As part of measures to help small businesses, the MP for Techiman South has launched a loan facility that will give businesses a total of GH¢1,000,000 in interest-free loans

• The beneficiaries are over 700 traders in his constituency

Over 700 market women in the Techiman South constituency are to benefit from an interest-free loan facility at the instance of their Member of Parliament, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah.

In total, they will benefit from a total of GH¢1,000,000 support package as a way of boosting their businesses.

The beneficiaries are made up of some 15 different classification of traders such as cloth, yam , egg , utensil and second-hand clothing sellers among others.

This, the MP for the area stated, is a way of ensuring that the traders and businesses in his community continue to thrive even in the face of the Coronavirus pandemic.

He explained to GhanaWeb that the pandemic has already had a huge toll on such businesses and there is the need to support them with such facilities so that they do not go out of business.

"The initiative which began on Tuesday, July 27, 2021, is to give these small businesses another lifeline to stay afloat and to thrive even better especially now that the Coronavirus has unsettled many economies of the world," he said.

The traders will receive amounts ranging from GH¢100,000 as part of the support.

Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah further explained that the program, known as the Mikam Business Support Initiative, which is being carried out in collaboration with the Brong-Ahafo Catholic Cooperative for Social and Religious Advancement (BACCSOD), is designed to be interest-free for this same purpose of supporting them.

"It’s an interest-free loan. They pay no interest in a spate of one year after which another group would be selected to benefit from this program, by which time it is expected that the current beneficiaries would have paid back," he said.

Earlier, some 17 farming communities earmarked to receive potable drinking water in the form of boreholes, received the facility.

The communities include Fiaso, Bomene, Pahorsu, Atabourso, Woraso, Bomiri, among others. They were also presented with free fertilizer to aid their farming.

Some other 80 individuals have also so far received bales of second-hand clothing each as startups for their businesses.