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The International Trade Centre (ITC) and Access Bank Plc have partnered to improve access to finance, markets and skills training for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across 14 African countries.
The partnership, formalised through a memorandum of understanding signed on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, will begin with a pilot programme in Ghana.
The initiative will run for three years and cover Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
It will focus on five key areas: job creation through SMEs, access to finance, business sustainability, capacity building and market access.
Women- and youth-owned businesses will receive particular attention under the programme, while participating enterprises will also be supported with digital trade skills and opportunities to expand their businesses across African markets.
The partnership also seeks to promote intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), while advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality, decent work and economic growth, and industry and innovation.
The pilot phase, scheduled to run from September 2026 to June 2027, will target a group of small businesses in Ghana, with priority given to women-led enterprises.
According to the partners, the pilot will draw on ITC’s existing digital learning tools and training-of-trainers programmes, delivered in collaboration with Access Africa Office staff.
The organisations said the programme would expand from 2027 to additional countries and include advanced training on sustainability standards and digital marketplace tools.
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Speaking on the partnership, ITC Executive Director, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, identified limited access to finance as a major obstacle facing African small businesses.
“Access to finance is the biggest barrier to trade faced by small businesses across Africa. We’re working with Access Bank to tackle this challenge and accompany the enterprises as we equip them with the knowledge, networks and market connections they need to grow,” she said.
Executive Director, African Subsidiaries at Access Bank, Seyi Kumapayi, said finance alone was insufficient to help small businesses expand, stressing the importance of market access and trade-related skills.
“We see every day that finance alone does not get a small business to scale. It is the combination of capital, market access and trade-ready skills that makes the difference,” Kumapayi said.
He added that the partnership would combine Access Bank’s presence across African markets with ITC’s expertise in knowledge, networks and market connections.
“Together, we are starting with women-led enterprises and small businesses in Ghana, with the ambition to scale intra-African trade and deepen financial inclusion across Africa,” he said.
Access Bank operates through a network of more than 700 branches across 25 countries on three continents and serves over 63 million customers, according to the statement.
The ITC is a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations that supports small and medium-sized enterprises in developing and transition economies to become more competitive in global markets.
