The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah has charged businesses in the Region to secure enough funds to make them financially sound to own and maintain productive assets.

According to him, complaints from indigenous companies in the Region that all major contracts were being awarded to companies from outside the Region would continue if indigenous companies failed to be daring enough to secure monies for huge projects.

“You should also have enough evidence to show that given that huge sum of loan you can pay back… we now have the Development Bank Ghana (DBG), which is a significant innovation and reinforcement of our financial architecture that will provide medium- and long-term financing for commercially viable businesses and projects… I, therefore, encourage businesses in the Region to also have the courage to make applications to the DBG”, he stressed.

Mr Darko-Mensah, speaking at the official launch of the 10th edition of Connect FM’s Western Trade Fair in Takoradi, also entreated businesses to utilise market surveys to guide them in producing the right products for the market.

He advised young entrepreneurs especially, the youth to look critically and assess the gaps that existed in the business landscape, identify the needs and create products to meet those pertaining needs.

The Western Trade Fair under the auspices of Media General’s Takoradi-based radio station, Connect FM, has been running for the past five years.

The Fair, which has grown to become the most anticipated activity on the calendar of many residents in the Region, sought to bring businesses to their target market and also give consumers wider choices at competitive prices.

The seven-day event sponsored by Allianz Insurance with a partnership from the Takoradi Mall has assembled over sixty vendors from all across the country.

The Station Manager for Connect FM, Mr Ransford Nana Osei Asare, assured the exhibitors of continuous changes to make it more successful.

“This year, the Connect team with the experience gathered from the previous fairs has among the series of activities, added a seminar in collaboration with Virtual Space Ghana to this year’s Fair to expose our vendors to the new trends and avenues available to them to maximise profits.

We are committed as a station to assist the Region through our programmes and Events to lift the image of the Region, while we offer our platform for commercial advertisement,” he said.

Mr Asare indicated that as part of its 6th Anniversary, the station with support from the Takoradi branch of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), donated items to the Appiatse disaster victims and that they would continue to support every worthy cause as far as the Region was concerned.