Nairobi,KENYA:Small and medium size enterprises have been urged to embrace technology and take advantage of available business applications in online platforms to enhance their businesses .
Speaking in Nairobi on a business forum in Nairobi , Timothy Mwatha, Equity Bank’s Credit Risk Manager said that such move will help the SME ‘s to grow their business remarkably .
Invest in Africa (IIA), a partnership with private sector businesses, is meant to create better access to skills, markets and finance for local SMEs, on Tuesday conducted a business forum for SMEs to meet Multinationals and large local buyers who have pledged to post their commercial opportunities on the African Partner Pool (APP) for SMEs to access and apply.
“The Supplier vetting process of the APP platform by Invest in Africa’s is enough in qualifying SMEs to access finance from the bank”. Mwatha said
He encouraged SMEs to take advantage of the opportunities in the APP platform in growing their business capabilities stating that his confidence that the APP platform will help them overcome some of the challenges they face in evaluating the credit risk.
The APP is an online platform designed to bridge the gap between larger organizations with local SMEs, allowing them to do business efficiently.
Speaking at the event Patricia Ithau, Invest In Africa ,IIA’s Country Director, said, that ,IIA is 10-year vision meant in creating thriving African economies by having USD 1B worth of tenders won on the APP and creating 100,000 jobs across the continent.
APP’s innovative features like the Ujuzi Hub (a Knowledge Hub) contains information tool kits to improve businesses, and the Biashara Network – a private online community space is a platform where the SMEs can post their catalogs and promote themselves to other Suppliers are great opportunities for SMEs to grow.
