In order to finance cross-border trade,

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Eric Tsiri, Head of Enterprise Banking at Stanbic Bank Ghana, has urged fintechs and financial institutions to work together and form partnerships to finance SMEs in order to support cross-border training.

In order to finance cross-border trade, cooperation is essential (Tsiri)

This was stated by Mr. Tsiri during his panel discussion during the 3i Africa Summit, which was hosted at the Accra International Conference Center.

In her speech, she discussed how strategic alliances may spur innovation in the banking industry while lowering costs and lowering risks for SMEs engaged in cross-border trade.

According to Eric Tsiri, “SMEs continue to be the backbone of African economies, contributing significantly to GDPs and creating a large percentage of jobs.

Discussions like these help bring key stakeholders together to discuss important interventions that are critical to African economies.”Financing is among the most important factors we must take into account in this discussion.

“If we want our SMEs to compete in the global marketplace, time is not our best ally in making this work. I think it will require banks, regulators, and fintechs to work together more closely and quickly.

By using data from fintechs, we can create a sector-specific strategy that will help SMEs grow their capabilities and get funding so they can capitalize on the sizable global market.

We can leverage the experience we get to cover other areas if we develop competence in particular ones. In fact, time is not our greatest friend; thus, by doing this, we identify crucial answers for SMEs, one sector at a time,” he emphasized.

Mr. Tsiri went on to explain more about the steps Stanbic Bank is taking to support Ghanaian SMEs in growing and changing. “At Stanbic Bank, we have put in place a number of interventions to support and finance SMEs, and the foundation of them is building the capacity of SMEs to be able to access the financing options that we provide,” the speaker stated.

Additionally, we continue to provide capacity-building initiatives through our Stanbic incubator, with a focus on corporate governance and sound bookkeeping procedures.

We provide SMEs with global market access through our trans-regional desk. More significantly, though, than in the past, we are working with fintechs to curate lending solutions utilizing different data sources.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) through its subsidiary Elevandi, the Development Bank Ghana (DBG), and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) organized the 3i Africa Summit.

Key participants in the financial, investment, policy-regulatory, and digital technology ecosystems convened for a three-day event with the aim of fostering strategic alliances and deliberating on conversations that would support the growing fintech and digital economies of Africa.

In addition, the summit was organized to encourage the development of innovative solutions tailored to address Africa’s particular issues so that the continent may benefit from its abundance of opportunities.