<<Print>>

Victims of the various market fires in Accra have described as small the amount of money given to them by the government to restart their businesses. Some 7,381 persons who lost their wares are to receive funds from government through the Stanbic Bank Ghana. President John Mahama directed the establishment of a GHC 2 million fund to assist victims of the market fires. However at a ceremony to begin the disbursement, some of the traders complained about that the monies would not be enough for them to start trading again. Some of beneficiaries� present Citi News spoke said the ceremony was a waste of time. �We�ve locked our shops and come and sit here and we didn�t get the peanut amount.� �We will manage it, but it is not enough; we lost thousands of Ghana cedis. We are calling on corporate society to come to our aid,� another trader said. �We are completely at zero, so the grant will boost our lives.� Meanwhile, the Minister of Children, Gender and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur said though the monies are too small, that is all government can afford at the moment. �We acknowledge the fact that the money is not sufficient, we cannot pay and compensate for everything that was destroyed; we don�t have the resources.� According to her government has other needs and has to cater for everyone. �This why we are calling on other financial institutions to provide some support.� On their part Stanbic Bank Ghana, the bank in-charge of the disbursement of the money to the beneficiaries it will increase its loan portfolio in order to cater for as many market fire victims as possible. The bank this morning received GHC 2 million from government to disburse to victims of recent market fires in Accra and Kumasi. Stanbic Bank wrote off the debt of 14 victims of the recent Kantamanto fire outbreak who benefited from the bank�s SME Quick Loan product launched last year. In addition, the Bank gave a total of GHC14,000 in cheques as corporate social responsibility to the 14 victims to restart their businesses and would also allow customers to access fresh credit from the bank without any strings attached. In an interview with Citi News, Head of SME banking at Stanbic Bank, Stan Dei said the bank is positioned and ready to offer quick and soft loans to the victims to help them restart their business. �We are willing to support people in-terms of loans; we have the SME Quick Loans.�