The Tuesday Market is a platform created by the GEXIM Bank for its clients and Made-in-Ghana products not only to exhibit their products but also to serve as a one-stop shop for the general public to purchase any­thing locally manufactured.

Speaking to the Ghanaian Times at the 19th edition of the Tuesday Market held at the fore­court of the Africa Trade House in Accra yesterday, the Head of SME Banking at GEXIM Bank, Mr Bright Evans Darko, said, “Our mandate is to promote finance and support export through the Tuesday Market that we organise.”

“From the time we started, over 1,000 SMEs have exhibited their products while some have got local and international orders through this initiative”, he added.

Mr Darko indicated that the bank was committed to providing financial support to the SMEs in the form of grants and loans in order to enable them to become competitive on the global market to improve the country’s economic gains.

Moreover, he said that he was impressed with how the SMEs were utilising the loans and grants provided them to help them to become competitive globally.

That notwithstanding, Mr Darko explained that the bank had in place a monitoring system to ensure that the loans and grants provided were used for the intend­ed purposes, adding that the bank sometimes make payment directly to the suppliers of the raw mate­rials and equipment to be used by the SMEs based on the business plans they present.

Mr Darko also further noted that he was impressed with how Ghanaian SMEs were taking ad­vantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to mar­ket their products, describing the initiative as one of the best market initiatives to happen to Africa.

He indicated that the bank fi­nanced about 20 SMEs last year to go for exhibitions across Africa to promote their goods and services.

Additionally, he mentioned that GEXIM Bank had set up an export trade department to finance SMEs who obtained export orders under the AfCFTA initiative and also provided training and sensi­tisation programmes to make the SMEs fathom what they needed to do and how they could maximise the opportunities that the AfCFTA initiative provided.

Mr Darko, therefore, urged Ghanaian SMEs to take advantage of the AfCFTA initiative to enable them to become competitive on the global market while the Bank continued to support them with the needed finance.