Tourism Development Fund accrues almost Ȼ14m after 3 years

The Tourism Development Fund has generated 13.7 million Ghana cedis - exactly 3 years since it became operational.

The fund was established with one percent levy on the industry services to ultimately develop the industry. The collections begun in October 2012.

The plan is to provide players in selected priority areas, financing at a cheaper cost to boost their operations. Despite the fact that, the fund has so far generated almost 14 million Ghana cedis, industry players may however have to wait a while longer, at least after this year before accessing the fund.

The Fund Manager, Abraham Tetteh explains to Joy Business Editor, Emmanuel Agyei it has become necessary to grow the fund further before starting the disbursements.

“We believe that the fund is still very young, so if we start disbursing it now, not many people in the country can access it. Even if we want to embark on projects now how many projects can we do with just about 14 million cedis? Therefore there is the need for us to increase the collections so that if we’re able to get from 20 million cedis thereabout then we can embark on major projects” he said.

According to Mr. Tetteh, prior to the disbursements, the fund is being invested in other areas which the players can take advantage of.

“The accessibility of the fund by stakeholders is one aspect and I’m not seeing this coming into play this very year. However there are areas they could benefit from this year which is education and training. The standards in terms of service delivery is of great worry to the Board of Directors and therefore training of all industry players has become crucial which is also part of the benefit to them” he noted.

About 3,200 accommodation as well as catering facilities across the country have so far been licensed and paying the 1 percent levy.

“We have a budget for the legacy projects the board wants to embark on which we’ve started doing. One of them is the procurement of vehicles of the Ghana Tourism Authority to enhance collections. We have procured a total of about 17 pick-ups for all the regions –so that’s the major application of the fund since we started collection” he concluded.