Conversations concerning the economic impact of Covid-19 do not appear to be dying down, despite the fact that small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) have not been spared the pandemic’s devastation.
According to Precious Gyau, Chief Executive of the Africa Business Innovation Forum, SMEs lack the necessary assistance to become market competitors, necessitating the need for stakeholders to teach entrepreneurs on best practices relevant to their firms.
To that aim, the Africa Business Innovation Forum was created to teach small and medium-sized firms on how to make the most of technology and digitalisation.
Mr. Gyau thinks that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) require empowerment in order to succeed, which led to the creation of the project.
This, he believes, will aid in their expansion by allowing businesses to gain access to financing facilities through the use of accessible data.
“For me, there will be a new spirit and a new sort of involvement in how we conduct business in Ghana as a result of this forum. Small companies in Ghana are struggling, and one of the topics we discussed was the digitization of SME banking. To obtain financing, a SME should be able to provide his mobile money transaction data.
Someone selling food on the side of the road should be able to show her mobile money transactions to a bank like First National Bank or any other bank for credit; and it should be possible,” he stated.
Mark Acheampong, First National Bank’s Head of Business and Commercial Banking, feels that appropriate paperwork and transaction digitization may assist SMEs obtain resources to help them expand their company.
“We are de-emphasizing cheques because we feel that electronic payments are the future. “If you look at our merchant services offers, you will see that we have brought out programs that allow SMEs, particularly small ones, to develop and have simple access to cash,” he added.
“Cash is slowly fading out, and we need to look at digital systems that facilitate this.” We looked at QR codes, MoMo integration, and standard card payments, and those are the things we looked at”, he continued.
The Africa Business Innovation Forum brought together diverse small and medium-sized firms to discuss ideas and discover new methods to differentiate their businesses in the post-Covid-19 market.