The 2021 edition of the Possible to Profitable (P2P) Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) financing forum came off on Tuesday, 7th December 2021 in Accra.
The session witnessed the gathering of all active stakeholders in the public sector; ministries and local government leadership, private sector (MSMEs and financial institutions), and CSOs.
The forum held on the theme “Delivering Innovative Financing for WASH Accessibility in Ghana” is aimed at increasing access to WASH services at the household level by scaling up access to finance and capacity development services by MSMEs.
Highlighting the progress and opportunity for scale on the P2P projects, Theresa Swanzy Baffoe revealed that the WASH initiative had received a lot of financial support.
“Through funding from the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands and implemented by SNV in partnership with Fidelity bank, the catalysing WASH Possible to Profitable (P2P) projects has deployed a total amount of €4million revolving fund to improve access to finance, household, and MSMEs for investment in WASH infrastructure services”, she said.
“The project has demonstrated a sustainable ordeal for delivering financial solutions to MSMEs and also increase investment in WASH infrastructure and services”, she added.
The session saw an important panel discussion on the innovative financing for WASH Businesses in Ghana through capacity requirements, financing requirements, and Policy Enabling environment requirements.
The panel included a representative from the Fidelity bank, UNCDF (Green Project), Coalition of NGOs in WASH, Environmental Service Providers Association, and the Ghana Enterprise Agency.
Touching on the lessons of financing WASH through a revolving fund, the representative from the Fidelity bank, who played a major role in the realization of the initiative disclosed that enough funds were allocated to ensure the sustainability of the projects through the collaborations with these MSMEs.
The Chairman of the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation Sector Mr. Attah Arhin, who also doubles as the Technical Coordinator for WASH lamented the poor approach by the government in providing a sustainable environment for Ghanaians.
He urged the MMDCEs to utilize the use of the common fund effectively to ensure communities benefit from portal clean water, sanitation and as well as providing quality health facilities.
Dedicated agents and stakeholders of various MSMEs who played a major role in implementing the WASH initiative were appreciated and awarded at the end of the event.
