Barclays targets women SME owners in financial inclusion drive

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 benefited from this year’s clinics.