In line with President John Dramani Mahama’s agenda to position Ghanaian businesses to play a major role in driving Ghana's economic growth, management of the Ghana Export – Import Bank (GEXIM) is seeking strategic partnership with the country’s development partners, development finance institutes, export credit agencies and other global investors to support Ghanaian businesses.

The Acting Chief Executive of GEXIM, Sylvester Adinam Mensah led a management team from the bank to engage various financial institutions and funding agencies on the side-lines of the recently held 2025 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG) in Washington DC., from 21^st to 26^th April 2025.

The GEXIM team met with the leadership of the Export – Import Bank of the United States of America (US EXIM Bank), African Export – Import Bank (Afreximbank), Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, US Africa Trade Desk and Cygnum Capital.

Sylvester Mensah revealed that the engagements were to explore strategic collaborations to secure funding solutions to assist Ghanaian businesses to explore new markets.

“We had the opportunity to share our strategic direction and immediate priorities in line with President Mahama’s resetting agenda in addition to some of our bankable pipeline projects in our meetings. I am particularly excited about the prospects of our meetings based on the positive and encouraging feedback received so far and convinced of securing funding to support Ghanaian businesses to enable them to contribute to economic development. Currently, the high cost of local financing with short-term interest rates is a disincentive for local traders, inhibiting the expansion of most Ghanaian businesses”, he emphasised.     

Over the years, financing has remained one of the key barriers to the development of Ghanaian businesses. 

A 2020 survey by the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) revealed that 60% of Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) owners identified funding, inadequate skills in financial management and business planning as significant challenges facing their businesses.