President of the Ghana Employers Association Alex Frimpong says employers must balance the quest to sustain the business with the survival of their employees.
Speaking on how the stimulus package announced by the government for the small scale businesses will help, he said if the package is attractive they will take advantage of it.
According to him, "business exists at the benevolent of society so employers have the responsibility to ensure even though they will be looking at economic and financial aspect the social impact of what the do will also become quite paramount..."
He noted that finding the balance between the survival of the business and the employees will help society.
"Business exists at the benevolent of society so employers have the responsibility to ensure even though they will be looking at economic and financial aspect the social impact of what the do will also become quite paramount. At the end of the day, they will need to do the balancing to make sure that while the business survives the employees must also survive and the society must also be stable so these are matters businesses do every day and I'm sure a lot of them have done their analyses so if we have attractive stimulus package the businesses should be able to take... "
Alex Frimpong stated that the stimulus package will not necessarily guarantee job security for the workers because the decision to lay off will be based on the business.
Guidelines to access govt's GHS600m stimulus package for small scale businesses
Deputy Minister for Finance, Mrs Abena Osei Asare has laid down the guidelines to be followed by small scale businesses who want to access the government's GHS 600 million stimulus package.
This package forms part of the various interventions made by the government to mitigate the adverse impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on businesses, individuals and households.
The GHC600m soft loan scheme will have a one-year moratorium and two years repayment plan.
Deputy Minister for Finance, Mrs. Abena Osei Asare explained that there are some criteria for the said package and businesses will need to meet the requirement.
According to her, a business or an individual must first be associated with a recognised trade group, have a Tax Identification Number (TIN) and also own either a bank account or a mobile money account.
“There are three things that everybody who hopes to qualify for such relief should have.â€
“One is that you should belong to a recognised trade association; two is that you should have a tax identification number (TIN) and then three you should have a bank account or a mobile money account. These are the three basic things that we will be looking out for,†she said.
“But the criteria for identifying these beneficiaries will be developed by NBSSI, so they will roll those out in conjunction with the rural banks. We think that to manage these things effectively or to implement it effectively, we should establish a steering committee chaired by both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Trade and Industry,†she stated.