Access Bank Ghana is committed to building the capacity of 10,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana. The initiative, which forms part of the company’s efforts to support the growth of SMEs in the country, is to provide them with the needed tools to boost their knowledge on technological trends, record-keeping, among others.
Alhaji Shani Allhassan Saibu, Northern Regional Minister, commended Access Bank for their tremendous support in building the capacity of SMEs and their access to finance to grow their businesses. “Your bank, as known, has set standard in business practices that unearth the potentials of SMEs, which is in line with government’s agenda of financial inclusion,” he said.
He was speaking at a forum organised by Access Bank in partnership with Deloitte Ghana dubbed ‘SME Financial Empowerment: An Imperative for Business Resilience’. The event brought together customers of the bank, and stakeholders to deliberate on ways of building their capacity in ensuring sustainable SME businesses in the country.
He advised SMEs to honour their obligations to the bank and other sector of the economy in order to access more finances to boost their businesses.
Kafui Bimpe, Group Head, Business Banking at Access Bank, said: “What we have observed over the years is the contributions of SMEs to the development of the country”.
“However, we noted that they are quite vulnerable and require a number of needs which must be met, of which we thought as bank cannot do it alone and therefore needed partnership to support the growth in order to bring them to the acceptable level that would help access more finance to inject into the business for sustainability.
He said the bank has been helping the SMEs showcase their products and potentials to the markets with network services via the SME fair held yarely.
“We have lots of packages called Instant Business where the SMEs are provided support without collateral, but rely on their cash flows as they build their capacity; and we know that they would be able to use the knowledge acquired well to manage their businesses. We are ever-ready to assist them with loans required,” he said.
This, he noted, would enable the SMEs to meet the required standard of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to trade and therefore behooves on all to build the capacity of the SMEs to be more competitive on the market. He advised the customers to take advantage of the training to scale up their businesses for economic growth.
Kwabena Situ, Partner Assurance Services at Deloitte Ghana, said one of the challenges confronting SMEs is rigorous training to adapt to marketing trends, hence, the commitment of the organisation to assist in building the capacity of the SMEs.
Some participants at the forum expressed gratitude to the bank for the financial support and capacity-building to grow their businesses. According to the participants, the numerous support of the bank has helped to sustain their businesses.
