Union Savings and Loans and Imagine8 Company Limited have signed a five-year sponsorship partnership to be the lead sponsor for the SME Ghana Awards.
Imagine8Company Limited through its initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Ghana and other stakeholders have instituted the “SME Ghana Awards” (SMEGA).
In view of the innumerable achievements of SMEs in Ghana the organizers are acknowledging, celebrating and rewarding best performing SMEs and individuals of entrepreneurial excellence.
The awards ceremony will showcase the country’s best SMEs in trade, service and industrial sectors.
It is based on this that Union Savings, a leader in providing solutions and support to small businesses signed a Memorandum of Understanding to sponsor an award scheme that acknowledges, celebrates and rewards best performing SMEs and individuals of entrepreneurial excellence.
Speaking at the signing ceremony the Managing Director of Union, Mr Philip Oti Mensah said his outfit saw the need to sponsor the event because they know such initiatives would propel other SMEs to work harder.
He also used the occasion to address the issue of lack of funds as complaints by the SMEs.
According to him most businesses are unable to manage their finances.
As at now there are about 28 banks, 22 savings and loans companies; over 400 micro finance companies and over 150 rural banks in Ghana, but Mr. Oti Mensah pointed out that “most SMEs collapse because they go in for the wrong loans”.
In his view, “access to finance is currently a thing of the past” and Union Savings and Loans were doing their best to build capacity through the SME clinic they have established to assist business entities.
He ended by emphatically stating that assisting events like the SME Award is a step in the right direction.
The SME Ghana Awards is open to businesses that employ not less than 11 to 50 persons for small businesses and 51 persons but not exceeding 250 employees for medium-sized enterprises. They must have an annual turnover taking from 90,000 to 3.5mil Gh Cedis for small businesses and Ghc3.5 million and not exceeding GhC10 million for medium-sized enterprises.
By: Evans Effah