NEW YORK, Sept 22 – The International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Access Africa Office, which coordinates the African subsidiaries of Access Bank Plc, have established a partnership aimed at expanding access to finance, markets and skills for small and medium-sized enterprises across 14 African countries.
The programme will begin with a pilot in Ghana before expanding to other markets from 2027. The participating countries are Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
The partnership was formalised through a memorandum of understanding signed on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
African SMEs account for a large share of employment across the continent but continue to face constraints in accessing finance and markets. The programme combines ITC’s technical expertise and business-support capabilities with Access Bank’s regional banking network to address those constraints.
Five areas of focus
The three-year partnership will focus on five areas: SME-led job creation, access to finance, business sustainability, capacity building and market access.
Financing initiatives will place particular emphasis on women- and youth-owned businesses, while capacity-building programmes will include digital trade skills.
The market-access component will support businesses seeking to participate in intra-African trade, including opportunities created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The programme also supports the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals 5, 8 and 9, covering gender equality, decent work and economic growth, and industry, innovation and infrastructure.
The initial pilot will run from September 2026 to June 2027, focusing on a group of small businesses in Ghana, with women-led enterprises receiving priority.
Ghana pilot to test scalable model
The Ghana programme will draw on ITC’s existing digital learning platforms and training-of-trainers programmes, delivered in coordination with Access Africa Office personnel.
The partners intend to expand the initiative from 2027, adding more countries and programmes that could include advanced training on sustainability standards and digital marketplace tools.
Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of the International Trade Centre, said:
“Access to finance is the biggest barrier to trade faced small businesses across Africa. We’re working with Access Bank to tackle this challenge and accompany the enterprises as we equip them with the knowledge, networks and market connections they need to grow.”
Seyi Kumapayi, Executive Director of African Subsidiaries at Access Bank, said finance alone is insufficient to enable small businesses to scale.
“We see every day that finance alone does not get a small business to scale. It is the combination of capital, market access and trade-ready skills that makes the difference. Which is why this partnership pairs our reach across African markets with ITC’s expertise in knowledge, networks and market connections. Together, we are starting with women-led enterprises and small businesses in Ghana, with the ambition to scale intra-African trade and deepen financial inclusion across Africa.”
Access Bank operates across Africa through a network of more than 700 branches in 25 countries, spanning three continents and serving more than 63 million customers.
The partnership gives the bank and ITC a framework to combine financing, business skills and market connections rather than treating access to capital as a standalone constraint for African SMEs.
