She noted that investors and external financiers often assess a business’s financial management capacity before offering support.

Ms Anane Appiah shared these insights during an SME webinar hosted by MTN on the theme “Unlocking Funding for Women Businesses.”

The session, moderated by Ms Kokui Selormey Hanson, featured a panel of investment experts offering advice on funding access and developing compelling business plans.

A key recommendation from Ms Anane Appiah was for women-led SMEs to use digital tools to track revenue and expenses.
She explained this builds investor confidence by providing reliable data essential for funding decisions.

Despite Ghana’s high rate of women entrepreneurs, female-led businesses often face underfunding due to informality and limited profit margins.

Ms Anane Appiah attributed this to structural challenges, including a lack of business registration and financial records.

“A lot of women-led businesses are not structured because in Ghana, 85 per cent of the labour force is in the informal and unstructured side of the economy,” she said.

Ms Anane Appiah added that the absence of financial documentation often undermines confidence and prevents women from applying for funding.
She also highlighted a significant information gap regarding available funding opportunities for women-led businesses.

Ms Seyram Ofori Attah, Co-founder of Your Investment Friend, underscored the importance of tailoring investment proposals to match investor requirements.

“Quite often, women-led businesses have a standard proposal and just send it to potential investors without tailoring it to where the opportunities could be found.

“They need to understand what the person was looking for, and were funders who were focused on specific needs, so women-led businesses must focus on these things,” she said.

Ms Edem Attor, Partnership Officer at United Nations Development Programme, advised women-led businesses to improve their visibility by consistently creating content that showcases their operations online.