UBA trains 300 SMEs in Kumasi
More than 300 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) at Kumasi in the Ashanti Region have benefited from a business capacity-building workshop aimed at boosting the competitiveness of the private sector.
The workshop, on the theme, “Maximising SME business growth opportunities in Ghana”, is to help develop a strong SMEs sector to support the economic development process in ways that can make the country take advantage of opportunities emanating from the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
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It is part of the second series of the 2022 edition of the SME capacity-building workshops in Kumasi organised by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana.
Annual workshop
The Deputy Managing Director of UBA Ghana, Sylvia Inkoom, noted that the bank was working in these annual workshops to offer customers real opportunities and help grow their businesses.
She said that UBA supported its customers through all phases of their businesses and the capacity-building workshop was one of the ways to achieve that.
“When your businesses grow, we grow with you and when you are out of business, invariably, we also. Therefore, we have an interest in your business growth,” she said.
She said UBA was providing access to market opportunities for the customers through various interventions.
Scale up
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Naton Olives Consult, Owusu Achiaw Kwaakye, observed that there was a need for SMEs to scale up their business growth through access to new markets.
She said the workshop would scale up their operations, as well as adopt operating models that better position them to support the economy.
She noted that the initiative reaffirmed the bank’s purpose to equip SMEs in the country with the financial advisory services and requisite knowledge to expand their business.
Improved bookkeeping
The Head of Retail Bank at UBA, Peter Dery, encouraged customers and participants to improve their record-keeping culture in order to receive support from the bank.
He noted that such a move would be one of the ways to determine the true value of their businesses.
He pledged that UBA would continue to support customers with bespoke solutions and add to the capacity-building workshops.
Feedback
So far, feedback on the workshop in Accra and Kumasi has been positive.
A participant in Kumasi, Daniel Yeboah, said, “I have learnt a lot today from this workshop and the speakers. I have gained so much information. And I’m also happy that I get to connect with other SMEs that attended this workshop”.