Propartners Exchange Limited has relaunched its corporate brand and outdoored its equity crowdfunding platform, which is aimed at providing better services to clients and continue bridging the funding gap that exists for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Managing Director for Propartners Exchange Limited, Wisdom Anku, in his comments stated how necessary it has become for the company to rebrand itself to introduce new technology and re-targetting for market purposes.
Explaining further, Mr. Anku said: “Our company name has not changed, the objects and ideals of Propartners have not changed either. But with new technology comes new demands in the market place. We are expanding our reach on the Internet, and that means we are competing with sophisticated companies within that space.
“Hence, our corporate image has been enhanced and we have a new corporate logo thoughtfully created to carry our brand across Ghana and beyond.”
Mr. Anku added that the new crowdfunding platform launched will give access to clients across the country to do business with the company at any time without coming to the office. The platform is designed to provide the original equity partnership services and the added equity crowdfunding services.
This is to make profit and impact investing into startup and existing businesses in the country readily accessible to individuals and organisations both within and outside Ghana. The platform is fully automated to do this, according to Mr. Anku.
Board Chairman for Propartners Exchange Limited, Benjamin Atidjah, also indicated how dominant the SMEs are in the economy, stating that it is a giant in revenue generation and plays a pivotal role in the socioeconomic development of Ghana.
He said though financial institutions, non-governmental organisations and government have all contributed to the development of this very sector, the interventions are still inadequate to achieve the desired results for growth.
“Research shows that the Small and Medium Enterprise sector dominates the Ghanaian economy by about 90%, employing about 60% of the labour force and raking in 70% of the country’s GDP. However, businesses in the SME sector have been bedevilled with numerous challenges, of which lack of access to funding remains at the very top of the list,” he said.
Mr. Atidja advised that businesses seeking funding must be structured to become attractive to funding sources, and must also become conscious of key factors which would be considered by any investor or even creditors. One of the factors he mentioned is well-organised business records to show profitability.
“While we decry lack of funding to the SME sector, we must acknowledge that the sector is far from being attractive to traditional and even non-traditional funding sources.
“It is a known fact that most businesses in the sector are not well-structured to attract the much-needed capital from sources external to the business owner. Most businesses do not even keep basic records,” he advised.
