Stanbic Bank embarks on financial fitness workshops for SMEs

LEADING financial services institution, Stanbic Bank, has established a financial fitness academy aimed at equipping small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) with the requisite skills to handle their finances and grow their businesses.

The financial fitness academy will be an annual event to equip entrepreneurs with the relevant skills to grow their business while compliant to the financial inclusion requirements in line with the National Financial Inclusion Strategy II, 2022- 2026 (NFIS II).

Stanbic Bank’s head of enterprise banking, Auxilia Kambasha, said the financial fitness academy would be in the form of training workshops countrywide through which customers are equipped with financial modelling to assist them to draw up financial statements and tax compliance requirements, among other administrative and governance procedures.

“The overarching goal of the bank is to partner our clients for growth. We are offering the training so that our clients develop and grow their business as they would have been equipped with financial basics that will assist them to make right decisions,” Kambasha said.

“The financial fitness academy will equip entrepreneurs with relevant skills that are critical and sustainable in achieving growth of their business while being compliant.”

The first series of the training workshops kicked off recently in Gweru, Kwekwe and Chegutu.

Kambasha said investing in critical skills in the promotion of the SMEs would result in ripple effects in the growth of the economy which is the thrust of NFIS II.

Financial inclusion is on the rise globally and continues to be a key enabler in wealth creation, poverty reduction and improving the livelihoods of people in low-income groups.

The bank is inspired by the quest to bring people and institutions together and maximise on their interconnectedness for mutual benefit, she said.

SMEs play a pivotal role in driving both developing and developed economies, contributing to poverty reduction, employment creation, value addition and economic resilience.

“As Stanbic Bank, we believe that developing economies must prioritise financial literacy, access to financial products and supporting frameworks that ensure holistic growth and development,” Kambasha noted.