Development Bank Ghana (DBG) signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding with the Association of Ghana Industries and Ghana Stock Exchange. It comes as part of DBG’s mandate of building capacity and empowering banks and entrepreneurs through financial innovation and other advisory services to strengthen the ecosystem in which businesses operate. DBG views partnerships as critical to the execution of its mandate.

In his remarks, DBG’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Michael Mensah-Baah intimated that “DBG’s primary objective is to ensure that SMEs are in a better position to receive and use funds from participating Financial Institutions (PFIs). A critical role here for DBG, therefore, is to provide long-term funding to banks and to engage in partnerships with institutions like AGI and GSE to ensure the empowerment of the private sector for growth”.                                                                                           This collaboration with partners seeks to fashion innovative solutions that demonstrate that principles and profits are not mutually exclusive.  

“In his remarks, the Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Mr. Ekow Afedzie said: “The GSE, DBG and AGI share the same ambition of supporting   Ghanaian SMEs to become giants in their industries by making patient capital available to them to expand their businesses. This tripartite MoU represents a significant step in catalyzing the growth of our SMEs by providing access to much-needed capital. The Ghana Alternative Market was specifically set up by GSE in 2013 to support SMEs to build sustainable businesses. He added that GSE is committed to all the action plans outlined in the MoU including this capacity building workshop.”

DBG is a development finance institution which with the support of international development finance partners such as the African Development Bank, European Investment Bank, the World Bank and the German development bank ( KFW) seeks to improve financing and technical support to the private sector through a wholesale model which operates via commercial banks designated as participating financial institutions (PFIs).