ITC-Access Bank Partnership Targets SMEs Job Creation Across Africa

A new partnership between the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Access Bank’s Access Africa Office is set to unlock finance, skills and market access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 14 African countries, with the ultimate aim of supporting millions of jobs on the continent.

The three-year programme, launched through a memorandum of understanding signed on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, will begin with a pilot in Ghana from September 2026 to June 2027, prioritising women-led enterprises before scaling across the region from 2027.

Focus on jobs, finance and inclusion

African small businesses account for the bulk of the continent’s employment, yet many remain constrained by limited access to credit, weak market linkages and insufficient trade-ready skills. The ITC–Access Bank deal seeks to close that gap by combining the UN small-business agency’s technical expertise with Access Bank’s pan-African branch network and customer base.

Access Bank operates more than 700 branches across 25 countries on three continents, serving over 63 million customers, giving the partnership a ready channel to reach SMEs at scale.

Five priority areas

Over the next three years, the initiative will focus on:

Job creation through SMEs

Access to finance, with special attention to women- and youth-owned businesses

Business sustainability for SMEs

Capacity building, including digital trade skills

Access to markets, with support for intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)

The work is explicitly aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals 5 (Gender Equality), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) and 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure).

Ghana pilot to lead scale-up

The Ghana pilot will support a cohort of small businesses, using ITC’s digital learning tools and training-of-trainers programmes delivered alongside Access Africa Office staff. Women-led firms will be prioritised in this first phase, which runs from September 2026 to June 2027.

From 2027, the partners plan to expand the programme to additional countries and introduce advanced modules on sustainability standards and digital marketplace tools.

“Finance alone is not enough”

Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of the ITC, said access to finance remains the biggest barrier to trade for small businesses across Africa. “We’re working with Access Bank to tackle this challenge and accompany the enterprises as we equip them with the knowledge, networks and market connections they need to grow,” she said.

Seyi Kumapayi, Executive Director, African Subsidiaries at Access Bank, added that capital must be paired with skills and market access to help SMEs scale. “Which is why this partnership pairs our reach across African markets with ITC’s expertise in knowledge, networks and market connections,” he said.

The 14 countries covered by the programme are Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.