Vodafone Ghana will continue to support businesses in the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) sector to thrive and grow to enhance the development of the economy, TawaBolarin, the Director for the Enterprise Unit and Wholesale Division, has said.
According to her, the SME sector was the engine of growth and source of employment and driver of most economies, Ghana not an exception.
Vodafone Ghana has designated the month of September to celebrate and support SMEs in the country to grow.
Speaking at the media launch of Vodafone Ghana SME Month in Accra on Thursday, MsBolarinsaid one of the unique challenges in surviving and thriving in 2022 and beyond was to establish the appropriate framework for scalability, reachability, continuity, agility, and efficiency.
“Our purpose as an organisation is to connect people and businesses for a better future. This is why we continue to empower businesses with innovative solutions designed to help our customers remain competitive, profitable, and relevant now and beyond,” she said.
Vodafone Business, MsBolarin said,hadover the years dedicated the month of September to SMEs to outline specific initiatives that would help address some of the key challenges facing SMEs in the country.
Those activities, she said, went beyond the company’s key products and services to other indirect support such as capacity building, media outreach and digital presence which had made significant impact
The Director of Enterprise Unit and Wholesale Division of Vodafone said the focus of Vodafone this year was on two unique digital products; “Your Business Online and Vodafone Cash” which SMEs could use to boost their businesses.
She said the two when used together, would help SMEs reach more customers, and make more sales.
Additionally, Ms Bolarin said the company was offering some free products and services that SMEs could take advantage of, to be scalable, reachable, agile, resilient, and efficient.
She said in the course of the month, the company would build websites for selected businesses for free, offer selected businesses 50 per cent discount on their Vodafonebills as well as work with selected SMEs to design specific training interventions targeted at helping them achieve more.
MsBolarinsaid the training would be based on their specific needs and it would be sponsored by Vodafone Businesswhile free smart phones and accessories would be provided for its business customers to use in rewarding their customers to increase loyalty for our customers’ customers.
She also mentioned free business registration of smaller business who are not registered, renovation and branding of shops and offices of some Vodafone merchants.
“We will offer selected businesses free advertising to accelerate brand awareness for their businesses and leverage on our partnership with Invest in Africa, an SME-focused NGO, to host webinars that will help build the
capacities of business owners,” Ms Bolarin said.
The Country Director of Invest in Africa, Ms Carol Annang, said her outfit was a partner of Vodafone Ghana.
“We have been working with Vodafone Ghana for some years now to support their Business Enterprise Division in supporting SMEs to provide them with skills and access to market,” she said.
MsAnnang said the core business of Invest in Africa was to support micro and small businesses in Africa.
The Co-Founder of Makola Foundation, Mrs Comfort Oduro-Nyarko, said the objective of her outfit was to provide capacity building and entrepreneurship to budding and existing entrepreneurs especially those in the market places.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
