The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Barbara Oteng Gyasi has assured companies under her ministry that they can still access existing stimulus package out-doored by government for businesses.

The Minister in an interview said that, businesses in the industry have been targeted in the amount government has set aside to prop up Small and Medium Scale Enterprises. She indicated that, the said amount was reviewed upwards by the Finance Minister during the Mid-year budget review, last month.

The statements of the Member of Parliament for Prestea Huni-Valley constituency, come on the back of concerns raised by some players in the industry of neglect after the Finance Minister’s announcement of several interventions to support businesses because of the coronavirus.

Recently, The Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF), asked government to urgently disburse the stimulus package set aside to support Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly, those in the hospitality sector.

However, the Minister insists that, there is no way the sector could be left out of all these interventions.

“We have a lot of SMEs in our sector, a lot of them. And you know that the SME support which was given now in the budget review is being increased by a GHS150 million. So there is an extra 100 million which is going to be made available for SMEs and out of that the GHS50 million is going directly to our creative arts practitioners and the media.

“So now, that is an allocation targeted directly at the creative arts segments of the industry, which is good.”

According to the Minister, even though government is putting in place a fund for larger businesses in the industry, they can still access and benefit from existing interventions.

“And for our bigger players, initially there was announcement of the 3 billion facility through the commercial banks which they could access and government had also negotiated moratorium on… their loan repayments with the commercial banks which they could benefit from. And from the budget review, there is also a guarantee fund which is being set up now. Because of that guarantee fund, they will have access {to} facilities at very lower rates.”

Data from the Ghana Statistical Service supports the agitations and heightened uncertainties emanating from the hospitality industry.

According to Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, the accommodation and food subsector were hit hard by the three weeks lockdown which was imposed in late March and transcended into the middle of April. This was because, in comparison to other sectors of the economy, businesses in the food and accommodation sector lost more than half of their sales during the lockdown.