Barclays to organise entrepreneurs on trade mission to China

Accra, April 26, GNA - Barclays Bank Ghana will in September send a gr= oup of small and medium scale entrepreneurs to China to explore opportunities= , an official of the bank said on Monday. The trip, being sponsored under the bank's local business club initiati= ve, will enable the entrepreneurs to hold discussions with their Chinese counterparts on how to collaborate to enhance their businesses. Nana Dwemoh Benneh, the Director of Consumer Banking, told the Ghana N= ews Agency that apart from the exposure that the business trips provided, members of the club were also able to meet entrepreneurs from other Afric= an countries to share ideas and experiences.

He said the local business club initiative allowed SMEs customers to benefit from basic financial training such as book-keeping, which on thei= r own they couldn't access. It also enables bank officials to meet customers to better understand their needs and to draw up solutions to meet the assistance they might require. The bank in the past had organised similar trips to South Africa and Dubai. Nana Benneh said the local business clubs also provided feedback on lending and credit facilities and was a platform that gave the bank an opportunity to see how effective its programmes were and to be able to ad= apt best practices from elsewhere to enhance performance.

Mr Ohene Bonsu, a member of the Business Club, said participation in th= e seminars had allowed him to understand financial planning, business growt= h opportunities and the knowledge on how to grow the business. Membership of the Business Club offer clients access to lending produc= ts, electronic banking and investment advisory services. The bank plans to increase by 50 percent the SME club membership to 10,= 000 customers from the current 5,000 members.