Formalise your business to attract funding – Women entrepreneurs told

Finance experts have advised women entrepreneurs to formalise their businesses by documenting their results to attract funding from financial institutions and investors.

They encouraged women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to put together professional teams to be responsible for handling the documentation processes of the business to demonstrate their financial viability.

Speaking at the maiden Investor Market Place Finance Forum in Accra, the experts also encouraged women to “change their mindset” and take risk to scale-up their business by exploring available funding and investor opportunities.

The Forum formed part of efforts to accelerate the success of women-led businesses in the agribusiness sector by facilitating meaningful connections and partnerships between women-led businesses, financial institutions and non-financial institutions.

The meeting in Accra was under the auspices of the United Kingdom Trade Partnerships (UKTP) Programme, and implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC).

The UKTP has been supporting women-led businesses in Ghana by building their capacity to be competitive and resilient in their production to enable them enhance their export potentials, access finance to expand their businesses whilst making them investor ready.

The World Bank estimates that, 44 per cent of MSMEs in Ghana are female-owned, and this sector accounts for about 92 per cent of all businesses and contributes about 70 per cent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product.

Madam Augustina Damete- Yeboah, the Managing Partner, Alpha and Escamore, a snail farming and consultancy, said some of the main challenges confronting women-led MSMEs were high interest rate and lack of flexible funding opportunities.

She said many start-ups resorted to family and friends to fund the business, which may not be adequate to scale-up operations and increase reach and returns.

She urged women entrepreneurs to join cooperatives and explore partnership opportunities to reduce operational cost.

Dr Loretta Sarpong, Head, Women’s Desk, Ecobank, urged women-led MSMEs to make documentation of their cash flow a daily routine and explore digital payment platforms to make it easy for financial institutions to assess their progress.

“You must separate your working capital from operational expenses. Have a personal account and use that for your personal expenses, and pay yourself as a business owner,” she said.

Madam Evelyn Sena King, Lead, Coverage and International Business, C-Nergy Ghana Limited said although women entrepreneurs had ambitions to expand their business, most of them failed to package the business to attract investors.

She encouraged MSMEs to engage professionals to handle certain aspects of the business to ensure professionalism and boost investor confidence.

Mr Chris Amponsah Sackey, Head of National Export and Development Secretariat, Ghana Export Promotion Authority, said the high interest rate faced by Ghanaian MSMEs affected the competitiveness of their products at the global level.

“The challenge is not about access to financing but at what cost. It is a bigger conversation that we need to have,” he said.