Africa: Stand Chart Launches Africa SME Month
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
5 September 2008
Posted to the web 8 September 2008
Standard Chartered is making September 'Africa SME month' after it launched the initiative in Gaborone this week. The bank's SME business teams will, during the month of September, launch several new initiatives, exclusively to its customers in Africa.
Standard Chartered believes that SMEs in Africa currently account for between 30 and 60 per cent of GDP, predicting that SMEs will be a key driver of sustainable economic growth in Africa over the next 10 years. The Africa SME Month will provide a platform to launch new products and services to its SME customers in Africa.
Michael Wiegand, Head of Consumer Banking, Standard Chartered Bank Botswana, said: "The promise that Standard Chartered makes to its customers is to "Lead by Example to Be the Right Partner"
Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the way that we lead in SME Banking to be the right partner to our SME customers. Our Africa SME Month is an exciting initiative that will focus the attention of Bank on our SME customers as we continue to enhance our products and service to these customers to further assist their growing businesses.
"The Bank's success has been achieved through rigorously pursuing its strategy of launching new, innovative and increasingly sophisticated products and services, including SME International Trade account and Express Credit.
"The launch of our Africa SME Month presents an opportunity for us to share with our customers and the community the advances we have made and will continue to make in our SME offering and to celebrate our success and the success of our customers. The September Month has been divided into four themes and each week will focus on a different theme".
The theme for the first week is business and product awareness, and as part of this theme we are launching an SME Current account promotion to give customers an increased incentive to save.
The promotion encourages customers to maintain a minimum balance of P50,000 in their accounts and stand a chance to win a TOYOTA DYNA 1.5 Tonne Truck at the end of the promotion in November. In addition there will be other monthly prizes.
Customers will earn additional chances to win for each incremental BWP50,000 deposits. .
The second week will focus on understanding the bank's customer's needs and then offering them the relevant products from the bank's suite of products.
"We will be conducting internal workshops to raise awareness of the needs of our customers and the products and services we offer them,".
The focus during the third week will be creating value for the customers through international partnerships.
"As part of this week, we will be conducting a trade workshop for our customers to help them understand and overcome the challenges of conducting international trade, including both regulatory and financial issues. We can leverage the expertise and relationships that we have built in operating in more than 70 countries around the world," read a statement from the bank.
Standard Chartered's strategic focus on SMEs and on international partnerships will be highlighted at the end of the year, when the Bank sets out to sponsor an estimated 40 SME customers at the annual World Exposition in Hong Kong in December. In 2007, the Bank assisted 20 of its SME customers in attending the event as part of its 'SME Trade Corridor' Initiative. Following that success, the Bank will be repeating its commitment this year.
Another important aspect of the 'SME Trade Corridor' Initiative is to provide customers with the ability to open accounts in multiple countries away from their home market, and manage all of their accounts through a single internet banking platform,, "Straight-to-Bank," allowing customers to access international markets and providing them with unmatched access and control over their finances.
The final theme for the month will be the HIV/AIDS initiative.
The bank said it recognizes the challenges SME's have in dealing with HIV/AIDS related issues in their businesses. As a result, the it will launch the SME Workplace HIV programme.
The objective of the programme is to empower SMEs with the necessary skills to handle HIV/AIDS matters in the workplace as well as facilitate dialogue between business owners, their employees and the support organisations.
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"We will be conducting a workshop for our customers during the final week of September to share ideas about how they can address the important issue of HIV/AIDS in their workplaces," added the statement.
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Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
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