Fidelity Bank has partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to present a four-part webinar series to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with financial and business strategies.

This forms part of the Bank’s Covid-19 response strategy to help the SMEs to navigate the economic downturn caused by the negative impact of COVID-19.

The webinar series is part of Fidelity’s new thought leadership series ‘Fidelity presents…’ and the first instalment was held last Thursday on the topic ‘An SME Perspective: Surviving Today to Thrive Tomorrow’.

Speaking at the webinar, Julian Opuni, Managing Director, Fidelity Bank Ghana, said, “Together with our partner IFC we are happy to present this webinar series. SMEs are a critical segment of our economy and the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted that sector, among others.

“We, at Fidelity, felt that in addition to other measures like loan moratoriums and loan restructuring, it was important to present SMEs with practical tools to help them to sustain their businesses through this challenging time.”

“Additionally, we supplemented our efforts by visiting some of our customers to further understand the difficulties that they are facing during this Covid-induced economic downturn,” Mr. Opuni disclosed.

He added that Fidelity Bank will continue to provide SMEs and other businesses such support and educative webinars during and after the pandemic.

The training program was led by leading IFC Consultant, Master Trainer and Instructional Designer, Margaret Jackson, who is also the Managing Partner of Rainbow Consult.

About 200 SMEs participated in the webinar and the majority of the attendees expressed satisfaction and appreciation for the insightful lessons learnt.

According to one customer, “It was really an insightful seminar. We look forward to more of these to enable us to stay profitable during this economic downturn.”

The remaining three instalments in the Fidelity Presents… SME webinar series will focus on finance during crises, communicating with stakeholders during crises and adjusting your business plan during crises.