MTN Ghana, the telecommunications giant, has reinforced its commitment to the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as it announces a transformative agenda dedicated to digitally transforming businesses across the country over one year.
The initiative is aimed at empowering and celebrating the sector’s contributions to the economy and will feature several activities – including a special offer for women in business, capability training for both formal and informal SMEs, a youth entrepreneurship webinar, the SMEGA (SME Grow Africa) Awards and market activations.
Chief Executive Business Officer Angela Mensah-Poku made this announcement at the 2025 SME Accelerate launch on the Accra Metropolitan Assembly forecourt under the theme ‘Business done smarter, faster and better’.
She elaborated that after several engagements with businesses in the sector, they indicated that their work is not a “hit and run” business but an everyday activity, necessitating the need for MTN to extend its support for the sector from one month to a year.
“SMEs are not a hit and run or just a one-day activity. It is every single day, which is why we have committed a full year of activities, programmes, propositions and partnerships to celebrate the work of our SMEs”, she announced.
According to Head-SME Sales, Mohammed Abubakari-Sidick, focus on improving the sector’s digital front is based on research conducted last year which showed a digitalisation gap among SMEs.
“In recent times, we have realised that most of SMEs are lagging behind in terms of digital transformation and we identified these gaps based on research we conducted last year,” he explained.
Speaking at the launch, Chief Executive Officer-MTN Ghana, Stephen Blewett, noted that in recognising the sector’s role in the economy they are unveilling the initiative as a “go-to brand for entrepreneurs in today’s digital economy”.
Highlighting their contributions to improving the SME landscape, he indicated that in the last five years MTN has invested more than US$1billion in the sector.
Mr. Blewett added that through the SMEGA Awards 2025, they will monitor SMEs’ performance and reward outstanding businesses that strive for excellence with a promotional package.
“We remain committed to rendering digital solutions and investing over US$200million in our infrastructure” he said, underscoring their resilience and efforts in seeing Ghanaian SMEs thrive and positioning them on the global market.
In her keynote address, Chief Executive Officer-Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) Margaret Ansei described the initiative as a strategic intervention that aligns with the agency’s vision.
She underscored the launch’s theme as critical in recent times – adding that “the future belongs to those who can boldly embrace change, leverage technology and drive smart solutions to scale their businesses”.
Turning her attention to the government’s 24-hour economy agenda, Ms. Ansei indicated that the initiative launched aligns with the country’s national policy.
As part of initiatives under the 2025 SME Accelerate is an introduction of a special bundle for women, ‘Adwumapa’, focused on empowering women-led SMEs and other solutions such as SME plus and yellow biz.
The ‘Adwumapa’ solution includes affordable voice data and SMS, insurance cover, visibility opportunities, MTN Business discounts and the GROW HER initiative.
Mr. Abubakari-Sidick added that their team is positioned across other cities including Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale to offer all SMEs the numerous solutions and opportunities this initiative promises to deliver.
Source: Deborah Asantewaah SARFO ( bftonline.com)
