{"id":164910,"date":"2015-11-06T10:16:25","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T10:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=164910"},"modified":"2015-11-06T11:40:31","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T11:40:31","slug":"agi-to-join-forces-with-sada-to-help-smes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=164910","title":{"rendered":"AGI to join forces with SADA to help SMEs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), is to strategically collaborate with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) to meet the financial needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within the SADA zone.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the Northern Regional Annual General Meeting, AGI&#8217;s National President, James Asare-Adjei, bemoaned the regional chapter\u2019s low membership drive, hence the need to collaborate with SADA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAvailable records at the secretariat indicate that the membership in this region is not growing as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He acknowledged SADA\u2019s unique opportunities required to fast track industrial development in the three regions of the north.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndeed, the collaboration and partnership between AGI and SADA is long overdue and I wish to indicate that AGI is more than ready to partner SADA to move this region forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>AGI industrial bank<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>James Asare-Adjei reaffirmed AGI\u2019s plans\u00a0to establish an industrial bank to support its members.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the association applied for banking license and is expecting\u00a0response from the Bank of Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBuilding the capacities of our SMEs to be able to compete both locally and internationally is the hallmark of AGI SMEs development agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-164913 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-3.jpg\" alt=\"agi joins sada (3)\" width=\"534\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-3.jpg 534w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-3-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this regard, we humbly appeal to the various financial institutions to be flexible in their requirements to enable SME businesses access credit without any impediments on their way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He further revealed that the AGI National Council\u2019s willingness to make available medium term credit to viable businesses especially those in the three regions of the north.<\/p>\n<p>He appealed to financial institutions saying, \u201cThe financial institutions should create products that meet the needs of SMEs particularly those outside the capital Accra: this is the surest way of helping our local industries to be more competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He unveiled the AGI National Council\u2019s willpower to support its branches with the needed logistics including vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a business association, AGI is fully aware of the challenges facing the SME operators in this region which include difficulty in accessing credit facilities, high cost of credit, poor\u00a0road network, difficulty in securing business operating permits from the local authorities and constraints to remain competitive in the Ghanaian market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>James Asare-Adjei kicked against the infiltration of foreign companies into the Ghanaian markets to the disadvantage of local industry players.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-164911\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-1.jpg\" alt=\"agi joins sada (1)\" width=\"534\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-1.jpg 534w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/agi-joins-sada-1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 534px) 100vw, 534px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He tasked the newly inducted regional executives to embark on a membership campaign to increase its visibility in the region.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SADA Board Chairman<\/strong><br \/>\nSADA Board Chairman, Sulley Adam, bemoaned the apathy of \u00a0Ghanaians towards patronizing made in Ghana goods.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized the need for local manufacturers to make their products competitive in global markets.\u00a0Sulley Adam impressed upon the AGI members to retool consumers attitude towards patronizing made in Ghana goods.<\/p>\n<p>He said SADA will deepen its collaboration with the AGI to build strong and relevant industries.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AGI Regional officers\u2019 election<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Newly elected officers of the AGI in the Northern Region were inducted into office.\u00a0Osman Sahanoon Kalandi of Pumptech Limited is the Regional Chairman and his vice is Abramani Freeman of Upper Quarry Limited.<\/p>\n<p>The rest are Yakubu Braimah as the Tresurer whilst Baba Yabdow and Ibrahim Hajara Taimako are executive members.<\/p>\n<p>Osman Sahanoon on the sidelines told Citi News the regional chapter could boast of 40 members.\u00a0He promised to make the AGI attractive to SMEs in the region and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), is to strategically collaborate with the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) to meet the financial needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within the SADA zone. Speaking at the Northern Regional Annual General Meeting, AGI&#8217;s National President, James Asare-Adjei, bemoaned the regional chapter\u2019s low membership drive, hence the need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":164912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,17],"class_list":["post-164910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-wassa-akropong"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=164910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/164912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=164910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=164910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=164910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}