Course Description

The importance of the SME Sector in a country’s development is well researched and established. They play a major role in creating jobs and generating income for low income people that is very important to economic growth and social stability. Today policy makers particularly in developing and emerging countries are actively engaged in setting the right policy environment for nurturing the sector.

There are many challenges faced by SMEs globally and access to finance is universally considered a high priority that needs to be addressed.

The SME sector in addition to being an attractive market segment, provides an excellent opportunity for financial institutions to be a partner in the development process of a country. Despite many challenges in providing financial services to this emerging and profitable sector, there is an increasing interest in engaging through innovative and responsive financial services. While large banks are down-streaming to finance SMEs, smaller banks and MFIs are up-streaming to enter the SME finance market.

This course is designed to provide participants with an overall knowledge of SME Financing and how their finance institutions can engage in providing financial services by over-coming challenges through innovative approaches, products and technologies in managing risks.

Objectives:

• To understand the SME sector, its financial needs and challenges and opportunities for financial institutions;
• To learn how best to engage the SME sector through financial services and identify how financial institutions should start or strengthen SME finance business
• To understand that financial needs of SME sector require a range of products offered beyond traditional lending and learn about products from international experience.
• To learn about different methodologies used in SME Financing that can be deployed

Download Course Summary Register for SAM 2021 Go back to course listings