In Ghana, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) offer the potential for significant progress towards sustainable economic development. Official statistics from the Ghana Statistical Service indicate that about 90% of businesses in Ghana fall within the SME category. These SMEs employ about 60% of the overall workforce yet they contribute only about 6% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Most SMEs in Ghana have over the years failed to realize their economic and global potential due to a number of factors. The failures are generally due to high cost of finance in Ghana, high risk profile of the SMEs, Lack of business development services and the lack of management information services.

It is against this background that the FirstBanC Financial Services launched the SME centre. The SME centre is to provide Business Advisory Services, Technical Support Services, SME restructuring and Management Services, among others, to members of the centre.

As a relatively small market, high-growth Ghanaian companies have little choice but to expand operations and improve on operations and transparency. The centre would prioritize and design service responses to address identified gaps in SME capabilities and resources, developing fact based analysis and road maps for strategic business development and investment. Depending on the needs of the SME and the phase of their business growth; advisory services would include evaluation, training, orientations and access to knowledge and information on how these SMEs can improve and enhance their business performance and finances.

It is the vision of FirstBanC SME centre to help SMEs grow to the state where they would become responsive to export opportunities.