Grace Elizabeth Anim-Yeboah
BARCLAYS
BANK Ghana, part of the Absa Group, will soon roll out a bank proposition aimed
at bringing more women-SME owners into Ghana’s digital financial space.
According
to the Bank, women are a major part of the SME market and they play a critical
role in the growth of small businesses both in the formal and informal sector
of the economy, hence the need to involve them in the nation’s drive to
financial inclusion.
Speaking
at the Bank’s 8th SME Clinic held at its Osu Branch in Accra last
week, Mrs. Audrey Abakah, head of SME Banking at Barclays Ghana said, “We are
working out a women’s proposition in line with the financial inclusion agenda
of the country. We have a lot more women who are not in the financial system
and this is of great concern to us, given their contribution to the SME sector”
“Attracting
more women into our system will give us the opportunity to support them to
realise their possibilities and grow their business,” Ms Abakah noted.
The
SME clinic was attended by over 60 clients who were taken through a series of
sessions including Credit Sanctioning, Fraud Alerts, Forex Trading and Company
succession plan among others.
Participating
clients were also updated on services such as Digital Banking, Mobile Money
Collection Solution and Barclays Business Club which are designed to help them
run efficient businesses and grow their portfolio.
Mrs.
Grace Elizabeth Anim-Yeboah, the Business Banking Director at Barclays Ghana
used the occasion to update participants on the bank’s transition to Absa, and
the opportunities the change presented to customers and all other stakeholders
of the bank.
The
Barclays SME Clinic is designed to help SME clients to benefit from the Bank’s
tailor-made capacity building programme aimed at educating and supporting SMEs
in running a sound and sustainable business. It also creates a platform for the
clients to interact directly with officials of the bank.
So far, nearly 600 SMEs have benefitted from this year’s clinics.
A business desk report
