We'll soon disburse World Bank's $55m hospitality sector grant - Tourism Minister

• This comes after the Tourism Ministry is ready to disburse funds to traders

• The money those in the hospitality industry will get is from the World Bank's grant

Tourism Minister, Dr Mohammed Awal, has disclosed that his outfit will by the close of the week commence the disbursement of $55m grant received from the World Bank to persons in the hospitality industry.

He noted that his team have done the due diligence after hoteliers and other businesses applied for the money two months ago.

Dr Mohammed Awal looks forward to seeing businesses bounce back to normal after the shocks from the global pandemic.

The Tourism Minister is quoted by citinewsroom to have said, “In the last two months, people have applied; thousands of them. So, the team has gone through the processes, sieved them and beginning Thursday or Friday this week we will start disbursing the money according to the procedure. Hopefully, this will not only help people to come back from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it will also make sure that they strengthen their SMEs, improve their governance and improve their sites”.

Reacting to this, the President of the Ghana Hotels Association, Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike, heaped praises on the Minister for making such an announcement.

While lauding him, he asked that the funds are disbursed in transparency.

“If it goes as planned, that will definitely be a welcomed development. Indeed, as an association, we expect the disbursement to be very smooth and transparent with easily accessible information of beneficiaries so that we can also monitor what the grant is being used for by these members moving forward,” Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike said.

Hoteliers have been one of the business sectors that were badly hit when Ghana recorded its first case of the deadly coronavirus.

Businesses are picking up gradually pick after some measures were put in place by both the owners and government.