ProCredit deploys more funds to SMEs

ProCredit Savings and Loans Company Limited has reiterated its promise to deploy more custom-made products and services to close the financing gap faced by the country’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The SME sector covers over 85 percent of the economic activities in the country.

Last year, ProCredit’s SMEs portfolio was valued at GH¢9 million and it hopes to double the amount in 2010.ProCredit’s loans portfolio grew by more than 18 percent to GH¢26.4 million in 2008. Deposits rose at a faster rate, increasing by 25.1 percent to GH¢29.1 million in the same year.

Edwige Takassi, Managing Director of ProCredit who made these known to B&FT, said: “The Company increased its financing support for the agricultural sector, which continues to be largely neglected by formal financial institutions despite its huge potential to create wealth and drive development.”

Ms. Takassi was speaking at the opening of the company’s second SME Clients Business Centre located at Kokomlemle, a suburb of Accra, to provide tailor-made business solutions that satisfy the demands of SME’s in the country.

She said the Centre will operate on a client-manager relationship basis and will ensure that clients receive the best investment advice to enable them to contribute to the country's socio-economic development.

“The opening of the Centre consolidates ProCredit’s commitment of providing adequate short and long-term credit facilities at competitive rates to SMEs, which is crucial to stimulating growth and creating jobs,” she remarked.

She said in view of the peculiar challenges that face the SMEs, ProCredit, capitalising on its years of experience as market leader, has decided to give increased attention to the sector to enable it improve its performance for the development of the national economy.

Ms. Takassi said the company would continue to provide socially responsible products and services with a transparent pricing approach to SMEs, an area which was largely ignored by most financial institutions resulting in the huge financing gap that existed between SMEs and big companies.

ProCredit will in the next three months open more business centres at strategic locations in Accra and Kumasi to bring the service to the doorsteps of its clients, she disclosed to B&FT after the event.

Mr. Samuel Appenteng, Vice President of Association of Ghana Industries, inaugurated the facility and said establishment of the Centre consolidates the company’s position as the best in developing innovative products to satisfy demands of customers in the SMEs sector.

“ProCredit proves once more its innovative approach through the creation of services fully dedicated to SMEs; this gives a more complete meaning to ProCredit’s philosophy of better banking for everyone,” he said.

ProCredit, a member of the ProCredit Group International, began operations in Ghana in 2002 and currently has 23 branches serving 170,000 clients in six regions of the country.