As part of collaborative initiative to consistently promote Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), Unity Bank recently hosted the maiden edition of SME Clinic in conjunction with Signal Alliance and BusinessDay Newspaper as a capacity building workshop to bridge knowledge gap.
The SME Clinic was designed to boost SMEs operators in leveraging effective branding and marketing strategy expected to play a key role in creating added value for products and making start-up become a big brand enterprise.
Coming on the verge of the 5th industrial revolution and the need to put SMEs ahead of the fast-paced developments, the clinic provided platform to expose participants drawn among Fintech operators, retailers, social services, schools, contractors, professional service firms, wholesalers, manufacturers, hospitality, NGOs, clubs and associations, supplies and Agric value chain the opportunities available as convergence of technology and human begin to take centre stage.
Commenting on the Clinic, the head of SME, Unity Bank, Opeyemi Ojesina, said as a key market focus contributing about 48 percent of the national GDP in the last five year, 50 percent of industrial jobs and nearly 90 percent of the manufacturing sector in terms of number of enterprises, hosting a capacity-building initiative of this nature enables the bank have more insight for enhancing financial inclusion plan for SMEs.
He stated that as a leading bank in the advocacy for SME, Unity Bank had developed innovative products for SMEs aimed at enhancing greater access to financial services, financial advisory and cluster marketing initiatives.
Participants were of the view that the SME clinic gave practical insights into techniques for creating distinctive brand concept centred on consumers and appreciated the three entities that organized the workshop.
Chief technology officer, Signal Alliance, Uchechi Nwaukwa, used the platform to launch CloudGo, an IT product built on Microsoft cloud platform.
As a “solution, that enhances communication, collaboration and scales innovation for business become a necessity,” he stated that “the product is a result of huge investment in IT infrastructure which helps to overcome upgrade challenges, enhance data protection and disaster recovery challenges faced by small businesses.”
