GHANA – Barclays Bank Ghana, part of the Absa Group, has announced plans to roll out a bank proposition aimed at bringing more women SME owners into Ghana’s digital financial space.

This move is in line with government’s agenda of achieving financial inclusion for all its citizens.

According to the bank, women constituted a significant of portion of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) market and as such played a critical role in the growth of small businesses in all sectors of the economy.

It was therefore necessary to involve them in the nation’s drive to achieve financial inclusion.

 “We are working out a women’s proposition in line with the financial inclusion agenda of the country,” said Mrs. Audrey Abakah, Head of SME Banking at Barclays Ghana.

“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.”

The program would also focus on providing business advice to women so that they can be able to effectively manage and grow their enterprises.

 “Attracting more women into our system will give us the opportunity to support them to realise their possibilities and grow their business,” said Mrs Abakah.

The Barclays SME Clinic is designed to help SME clients to benefit from the Bank’s tailor-made capacity building programme.

The programmes are aimed at educating and supporting SMEs in running sound and sustainable business.

Barclays SME club also created a platform where clients get to interact directly with officials of the bank.

Clients attending the clinic 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 offered by the financial institution which include Digital Banking, Mobile Money Collection Solution and Barclays Business Club.

These unique services from Barclays are designed to help their clients run efficient businesses and grow their portfolio.

Barclays Bank Ghana is a subsidiary of Absa Group Limited, a continental financial services provider based in South Africa.

Absa was until July 2018 known as Barclays Africa Group Limited. The group has majority shares in Barclays Bank Subsidiaries located in 11 African Countries.

The financial service provider is in the process of rebranding all its Barclays Bank subsidiaries to Absa as a way of expressing its new identity as a standalone African bank