As part of the MoU, the two organisations would team up to build the capacity of about 50,000 SMEs in Africa in the next three years so they would be in the position to take advantage of AfCFTA and export to the other African markets.

The Executive Director of Wholesale Banking of Access Bank, Ghana PLC, Mr James Bruce, said Access Bank Ghana PLC over the years had sup­ported SMEs as an intentional policy by not just giving them money, but training and equip­ping them with the capacity to thrive.

“No economy can grow with­out SMEs. They are the engine of growth. And aside from access to finance and skills training, logistics is a core component of every SME’s journey, how to get produce to market, how to get it in the right shape so that your business partner on the other side is happy about what they received, so that you have to repeat orders,” he explained.

It is against this backdrop that he said, Access Bank Ghana PLC had partnered with DHL, a world-class logistics company, to build the capacity of SMEs across Africa.

Additionally, Mr Bruce under­lined that some of the SMEs did not have the capacity and knowl­edge on how to access the African market.

“DHL is very big on sustain­ability. So once we are starting this journey, it is good to have a partner that understands what we are doing,” he emphasised, adding that “So as we move forward in this partnership, I want to reaffirm that Access Bank Ghana has a commitment not to be just a financial service provider. We are going to be a development partner across Africa. And we’ll be champions of African entre­preneurship.”

The Chief Executive Officer for West Africa and Country Head Ghana of DHL, Serigne Ndanck Mbaye, noted that the partnership and the MoU was to help the partners to support SMEs.

He mentioned that the partnership was a Pan-African initiative, starting from Ghana, to support SMEs across Africa.

The Managing Director of DHL Ghana Limited, Mr Morgan Uloko, said SMEs were the engine for growth of most economies on the continent.

He stated that the MoU was in line with the ‘Go beyond Borders’ programme of DHL, which was essentially to equip SMEs with the skills to trade and find markets across borders.

Mr Uloko also said a lot of SMEs had problem with finance and said that “This MoU that we just signed today is an announcement of our intent to work with a Pan-African finance institution to coin solutions, financial solutions that will be tailored to the needs of our SMEs.”

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Finance and Operations of Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), Mr Ambrose Edwin Nsarkoh, indicated that his outfit was proud to be asso­ciated with the programme.

He said the initiative was in line with the mission of GEPA to support SMEs to take advan­tage of AfCFTA and export to other African countries.

 BY KINGSLEY ASARE