The Managing Director of Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG), Dr Naomi Wolali Kwetey, has announced a dedicated financing initiative for entrepreneurs with disabilities, saying the bank intends to broaden access to formal credit while maintaining responsible lending standards.

Dr Kwetey made the announcement on Friday, September 11, when she addressed CBG’s Disability Conference at the Du Bois Centre, Cantonments, via Zoom.

The conference brought together CBG’s Deputy Managing Directors, members of Executive Management, representatives of the Korklu Foundation, bank employees, beneficiaries and members of the media.

Dr Kwetey said CBG viewed financial inclusion as a strategic responsibility and that the bank had to recognise the economic potential of people across all sections of society.

She said financial institutions had an important role to play in converting that potential into sustainable economic participation.

Dr Kwetey said CBG’s intervention began with the onboarding of 119 participants under its PWD Financial Inclusion Programme.

As part of the programme, the bank funded the minimum opening balances for participants’ accounts and granted approved service-fee waivers.

The measures were intended to encourage beneficiaries to use their accounts and reduce some of the immediate barriers associated with entering the formal banking system.

However, Dr Kwetey said CBG recognised that meaningful financial inclusion had to extend beyond account ownership.

The new loan initiative is therefore designed to provide PWD entrepreneurs with a pathway into formal credit, enabling them to access financing under terms that take account of some of the challenges faced by businesses operating outside the conventional formal economy.

Dr Kwetey rejected an approach that viewed persons with disabilities principally as beneficiaries of support.

She described them as entrepreneurs, employers, producers, professionals and customers whose aspirations were no different from those of other business owners.

Yet, she noted, conventional financial products did not always accommodate the barriers encountered by PWD entrepreneurs when entering or navigating the formal financial system.

“Their ambitions are not different from those of other business owners,” she said.

The CBG initiative, she explained, was intended to respond to that gap by moving the bank’s commitment beyond financial literacy and account opening towards access to credit.

A key feature of the initiative is that the financing will be provided as loans rather than grants.

Dr Kwetey said this distinction was important because it places beneficiaries within the formal credit system and recognises them as economically capable partners.

The model is therefore intended to promote both opportunity and responsibility, allowing entrepreneurs to access capital while developing formal borrowing and repayment relationships with the bank.

For CBG, the approach also reinforces the idea that persons with disabilities can be active participants in the financial system rather than simply recipients of financial assistance.

Dr Kwetey said the bank had adopted what she described as an approach of “inclusion with discipline”.

Under the initiative, CBG will provide concessionary pricing and carefully considered exceptions to certain requirements that might otherwise exclude viable informal businesses.

However, such flexibility will not eliminate the bank’s core lending safeguards.

Sound appraisal, transparency, responsible lending and accountability will remain central to the programme.

Dr Kwetey said maintaining that balance was essential to the credibility and longevity of the initiative.

“Inclusion without sustainability will not endure, and credit without responsibility will not empower,” she said.

She added that CBG had a responsibility to protect depositors’ funds while ensuring that banking policies did not prevent deserving entrepreneurs from progressing simply because their businesses had begun outside the formal system.

The initiative has been structured as a dedicated pathway to credit for PWD entrepreneurs, combining financial literacy, concessionary finance and sustained business support.

The model is intended to reflect the realities of viable micro-enterprises, many of which may require support beyond the initial provision of capital.

By combining financial education with access to finance, CBG hopes to strengthen beneficiaries’ ability to manage their businesses, understand credit obligations and maintain productive relationships with the bank.

Dr Kwetey said the initiative would also lay the foundation for a specialised CBG credit proposition for PWD entrepreneurs.

The bank's stated objective is to create an accessible and commercially responsible solution that recognises business potential while encouraging long-term participation in formal finance.

The Managing Director said CBG’s ambition went beyond the beneficiaries participating in the programme.

The bank intends to deepen partnerships and expand responsible access to finance for PWD-owned businesses across Ghana.

She said partnerships would be particularly important in helping the bank understand the needs of the PWD community and develop interventions that respond to actual business realities.

Dr Kwetey thanked the Korklu Foundation and other partners for helping CBG better understand the community and for challenging the bank to uphold the standards required for genuine inclusion.

She also acknowledged the media for highlighting the contributions of PWD entrepreneurs and helping to promote a more informed national conversation about inclusive finance.

CBG intends to measure the initiative’s impact through more than the number of loans issued.

Dr Kwetey said the bank would consider the strength and resilience of participating businesses, the quality of account relationships, responsible repayment and beneficiaries’ confidence in dealing with the formal financial system.

“These outcomes will tell us whether we are creating enduring value,” she said.

For participating entrepreneurs, the objective is to use financing to build viable businesses capable of meeting their obligations and growing over time.

For CBG, responsible repayment and stronger customer relationships will be important indicators that the initiative is achieving both its inclusion and commercial objectives.

Dr Kwetey urged beneficiaries to see themselves as entrepreneurs with the capacity to build sustainable enterprises.

“CBG sees your potential and respects your enterprise,” she said.

She told them that their opportunities should not be determined by disability, but by what they could achieve when ability, finance and commitment came together.

Dr Kwetey also challenged CBG employees to treat the initiative as an opportunity to rethink how financial services are designed and delivered.

She urged staff to “think differently, design more thoughtfully and serve more deliberately”.

According to her, the programme was not simply about adding another lending product to the bank’s portfolio.

“We are strengthening the Bank’s capacity to include customers who have too often remained outside formal finance,” she said.

That institutional change, she suggested, would be necessary if financial inclusion was to become sustainable rather than remain limited to individual programmes.

Dr Kwetey formally introduced the CBG PWD Inclusion Loan Initiative, signalling the bank’s intention to deepen its engagement with entrepreneurs with disabilities.