Blended finance options for co-funding and de-risking mechanisms for SMEs in Ghana
On 17 December 2021, SNV’s Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) project partnered with Innohub Ghana to host a webinar to discuss and validate findings of its study on available blended finance options for green businesses in Ghana.
About the GrEEn project
The Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) project is a four-year action from the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF). The project aims at creating greater economic and employment opportunities for youth, women and returning migrants by promoting and supporting sustainable, green businesses in two selected regions in Ghana: Ashanti and Western.
GrEEn is implemented under the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa with a total contribution of EUR 20,600,000.
About the webinar
Access to finance remains a key constraint to Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) development in emerging economies. This is because of a mismatch between the needs of small businesses and the supply of financial services, which typically are easier for larger firms to access. SMEs face many constraints in accessing funding for their business, such as unfavourable terms of conditions, high interest rates, collateral, improper booking and weak internal controls.
Blended finance, which refers to the mobilisation of private and public funds for supporting sustainable development, is increasingly becoming an important source for bringing commercial financing into sectors that require substantial finance needs and support.
The GrEEn project, as part of its efforts to create a marketplace of investors and commercial lenders targeting SMEs in the green economy, engaged the services of Innohub Ghana to assess the availability of blended financing options for co-funding and recommend de-risking mechanisms for SMEs in SNV’s three sectors; Renewable Energy, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Agriculture. Innohub is at the concluding end of the research assignment and to validate the key findings and recommendations, as well as share key insights with stakeholders, the GrEEn Project organised this webinar.
The scope of the presentation included:
Financial institutions with blended financing options available to SMEs, with information on products and services ranging from conventional to innovative financing,
nature of funding and requirements for SMEs to access the funding,
Inherent and perceived risk factors of SMEs that limit the ability of the identified financial service providers to finance their operations
Strategies and mechanisms to de-risk these barriers to improve access to available blended financial products.
Objectives of the webinar
To present the findings of the blended finance study to respondents and other participants for feedback and validation.
To share key lessons from the survey with service providers and policymakers to improve service provision
To introduce the GrEEn Project to a broad range of relevant stakeholders and promote the growth of Ghana’s circular economy
Target audience
Public sector/Government institutions at the national and sub-national level;
Financial service providers
Incubation and acceleration hubs
Business membership organisations
Technical training service providers
Industry associations
Individual/Freelance consultants, coaches and mentors
Click on the image to download the webinar presentation