UMB inaugurates third business centre

Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) has inaugurated a new business centre at Kasoa in the Central Region as part of measures to help strengthen the bank's service delivery to small and medium enterprises (SME) in the country.

Known as "UMB Centre for Businesses," it is expected to set a new standard in the delivery of SME banking services and enhance the competitiveness of UMB in the SME sector.

The establishment of the centre in Kasoa followed two other business centres opened in Ashtown in Kumasi with the other located at Madina in Accra.

The Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr John Awuah, at the launch in Kasoa on Tuesday, said the centre was established in order to help strengthen the bank’s commitment to SMEs and to restore its leadership position as the pre-eminent financial partner for businesses in the country.

“This centre has been opened to accommodate the vibrant business sector in Kasoa and to leverage on the area’s diverse commercial activity.”

He mentioned that the bank had since its establishment supported local businesses by strengthening their commitment to the business community.

“We have not lost sight of our legacy since we opened our doors in 1972 for business,” he said.

Building strong SMEs

He acknowledged that a strong small and medium enterprise sector was important to the growth of every economy, advanced or developing.

In Ghana, for example more than 92 percent of all registered businesses fall in this category with a similar proportion of the industrial sector making it to the category.

The sector is essential for several reasons including creating jobs, supporting the agricultural and primary commodities sub-sectors and also generating foreign exchange for the economy when a good chunk of the SMEs build up competitiveness and capacity to play in the global or regional marketplace.

The call, therefore, by Mr Awuah is for Ghana to develop a strong SMEs sector to support the economic development process in ways that can enable the country to take advantage of opportunities emanating from its relationship with other nations.

SME category

He said the bank acknowledged that a majority of businesses in the country were under the SME category which was the reason why it had taken steps to support the sector.

“SMEs are unique and face peculiar challenges and that is why we have taken the bold step of setting up an operational infrastructure outside of our normal banking operations to cater exclusively to the needs of SMEs,” he said.

According to him, the UMB Centre for Businesses is not a UMB branch, but the cradle for developing all categories of businesses and entrepreneurs, “from the woman who sells second-hand clothing to the young technology entrepreneur who has the next billion cedi idea.”