Under this agreement, private small and medium businesses in Ghana are to benefit from grants from the EU and the government of Denmark through the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund. The enterprises will also receive support from business service providers in preparing and implementing their advocacy actions.

To implement this program, the European Union, and Denmark, through the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), on August 10, 2011 signed a delegated cooperation agreement under which the EU will contribute 3 million Euro to the BUSAC Fund.

The EU’s assistance of 3 million Euro brings the total commitments by development partners to BUSAC Fund to US$16 million. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) earlier in April, 2011 committed US$4 million while Danida has committed US$8 million in support of the second phase of BUSAC Fund which started in 2010.

The EU’s contribution is in line with the EU’s commitment to private sector development in the country. The EU expects that small and medium business associations will take advantage of opportunities under the BUSAC Fund to address the legal and regulatory issues that affect the ease of doing business, and ultimately improve productivity.

The BUSAC Fund is a challenge fund initiated within Danida’s Support to Private Sector Development Programme, which seeks to assist the Ghanaian private sector to advocate to local, regional and national authorities to create the appropriate enabling business environment for the private sector to be profitable and competitive.

The BUSAC Fund supports advocacy efforts by the Non-State-Actors for a better enabling environment through private-public, private-private and private-general public advocacy. The private sector organizations which include business groups and associations, trade unions, farmer-based organizations, media houses and media associations target local institutions like the District Assemblies, Utility Service Providers, Financial Institutions as well as national governmental institutions and other private sector institutions to act to remove the challenges confronting the sector.