Accra, May 1, GNA – Invest in Africa (IIA), a private sector-led initiative focused on growing local businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa, has decided to make its membership-based services offering COVID-19 support free to any Small or Medium-sized business in Africa.
The new ‘COVID-19 SME Survival Toolkit’ includes webinars, practical guides, solutions, and recommendations to help African SMEs get through the many challenges the pandemic represents.
Established in 2012, IIA operates locally in five countries across the continent (Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Zambia, and Mauritania), acting as a catalyst for SME growth and competitiveness by providing training, improving access to finance and mitigating supply chain risks.
A statement issued by IIA said the latest COVID-19 survival programme, focused on supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through the current period of economic uncertainty.
It said the service was available to all SMEs across Africa via the Invest in Africa website.
Mr William Pollen, IIA’s CEO commenting on the initiative said, “Because of the vast majority of businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa are SMEs, we also provide nearly all employment opportunities and ensuring their survival is critical to longer-term economic growth prospects.”
He said what the programme aimed to achieve was not only to enhance SMEs’ chances of surviving the crisis but also to help them emerge stronger and more resilient.
“We are an SME ourselves and as an organisation dedicated to supporting small local African businesses, the decision to roll out a specific COVID-19 response initiative, for free, was made immediately,” he added.
The CEO said whilst survival was the new theme of 2020, SMEs were in danger of being forgotten about, that was why IIA wants to ensure they do not get left behind by arming them with practical support, built over years of experience, that could be implemented now, focusing on business-critical issues like cash flow, cost reduction, procurement and HR.
He said IIA works with an extensive network of partner organisations, including the UK Department for International Trade in Africa to effectively support and accelerate SME business growth.
Mr Pollen said the latest initiative launched by IIA as part of the COVID-19 programme was a series of virtual training sessions in partnership with these organisations, offering courses such as ‘The 100-Day COVID-19 Business Recovery Plan’ in partnership with EY and ‘Formulating Solutions to Support Female-led SMEs’ in partnership with International Financial Corporation.
Madam Emma Wade-Smith, the Trade Commissioner for Africa at the UK Department for International Trade said: “Having restated the UK’s commitment to being Africa’s investment partner of choice at the UK-Africa Investment Summit in January, we want to reiterate our support to our African partners during this unprecedented economic challenge”.
She said SMEs were critical to the resilience of local economies, so “we fully support the efforts of Invest in Africa to assist them and the initiative to offer free access to this useful toolkit, especially as trade and investment will be so essential to mitigating the economic impact of COVID-19.”
Mr. David Ofosu-Dorte, Executive Chairman, AB & David Africa, one of IIA’s partners said: “In Africa where economies are predominantly SMEs led, the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 will be massive”.
He said forward-looking initiatives focused on helping SMEs survive the storm and position them to be more resilient was exactly what IIA was providing to help local businesses to prepare to take advantage of AfCFTA opportunities.
He said one of the obvious lessons of COVID-19 was that it was important not to be over-dependent on one region for the business supply.
“With a Pan-African network of 5000 suppliers across the continent, IIA is well-positioned to contribute to building long-term capacity and competitiveness of SMEs in the supply chain and this programme will really make a difference to how SMEs ride the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
He said with unprecedented financial stimulus packages being put forward by governments and Central Banks to support SMEs, another key part of IIA’s COVID-19 programme was highlighting to SMEs what support was already available and how to access this funding.
Mr Godwin Locher, Founder of Ghanaian-based SME Lightingale Limited said, “I must say this is a great initiative by IIA in support of SMEs in these difficult global times.”
He said one of the biggest challenges had been knowing how to access the government SME stimulus packages to support their ongoing projects and supplement their working capital.
“The effort IIA is making to educate businesses about government programmes for the SME sector is greatly appreciated,” he added.
GNA