FCI to provide support for more SMEs

The Factoring International Chain (FCI) has promised to provide support for more Small Medium Enterprises in Ghana to help them facilitate international trade through factoring and related financial services.

FCI act as a bridge between factoring companies located in two different countries, by providing a “correspondent factoring” platform to an export factor. This will enable the export factor to offer export factoring to its local clients by using the services of a local import factor in the buyers country.

This bridge permits the members to finance exporters against their accounts receivable, offering the comfort and knowledge that their accounts are protected and collected by an import factor in the buyer’s market.

Chairman for FCI, Mrs. Daniela Bonzanini, speaking at its first ever conference in Africa wsaid the FCI intends to provide support for more SME’s in the country because SME’s need support before they export.

She said factoring is a product for SME’s and as such, the company will be targeting more SME’s in the country.

Investments in Africa

Secretary General for FCI, Peter Mulroy also disclosed that, the FCI helped investments in Africa to increase from US$90 billion in 2,000 to over US$100 billion in 2012. He said growth rates in the market was an all time high of six per cent GDP growth in the past decade. He also stated that, cross border trade or open account trade was also on the rise in Africa.

Mr. Mulroy also indicated that, Africa represented five per cent of the entire membership of FCI and Africa generated 25 billion of their volume, representing 1.5 per cent. He said the FCI is committed to support the development of factoring in Africa.

Credit insurance

Managing director for Activa International Insurance, Mr. Steve Kyerematen in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS pointed out that, Activa issues out credit insurance policies so that in the instance where the buyer who is contracted to pay back to the supplier defaults, the credit insurance policy comes in to indemnify the policy holder.

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According to him, Activa was the first to introduce credit insurance in the country. He said Activa has a partnership arrangement with Coface and Coface is one of the leading credit insurance companies in the factoring companies in the world. He said Activa applied to the national insurance commission for authorization to implement credit insurance policies in Ghana and it was on the basis of a memorandum of understanding that they signed with Coface.