He said the idea of increasing exports of goods to the EU market as far as the EPA was concerned, was what businessmen and women were looking out for.

Mr Ashley made the declaration in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a workshop on exports requirements under the EPA, which was organised by the EU, Trade Ministry and Compete Ghana, to contribute to improved economic governance.

The Executive Head said, "as we speak, Ghana is an import led economy, we are looking for the stage where we will be able to transform from import led to export led, so that the fall in the value of the local currency relative to the major foreign currencies will be a thing of the past.

Mr Ashley noted that there was the need to strengthen the cedis, and that one way of doing so was to ease the pressure on the currency with regards to importation.

He said the banks were looking for such opportunities for businesses to have strong value chain and value addition ideas, such that payments of loans offered to them would not be a challenge.

The Executive Head sald banks have decided to organise various clinics this year for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to invite them to apply for loans.

"So, what is required now is to ensure that we have businesses that are well documented to ease the interactive process with the banks and facilitate the delivery or approval of loans for the SMEs, and I can say that one of the banks

is offering loans for SMEs for ten per cent,Mr Ashley added.

He indicated that the association had faced challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the debt restructuring exercise by the government, and that it was vital to try to put the economy back on its growth path.

The Ghana EU EPA is a trade and development agreement under which Ghanaian exporters benefit from duty-free and

Under the EPA, Ghana had agreed to open gradually from 2021 till 2029 its market to around 80 per cent of EU products, which would increase the country's competitiveness in the regional markets.