First National Bank has long been known for providing invaluable help, support and unmatchable services to businesses, particularly those that are small- and medium-sized operations (SMEs).
In addition to the extensive business relief efforts provided by the bank to help businesses cope with the challenges of Covid-19, First National Bank has also created a vast range of valuable information and education tools to support owners and managers of businesses of all shapes and sizes during the pandemic.
This vault of valuable information is now available on the First National Bank Business Hub, where any business owner in Ghana has free access to the content, which includes educational videos, strategic leadership guidance for rebuilding businesses and enhancing their resilience going forward.
There are also thought leadership articles, videos, general business, industry and sector news and information, and an array of tools, templates and process guidelines to help businesses become more resilient, profitable and future-fit.
According to Mark Achiampong, Head of Commercial and Business Banking at First National Bank, while this Business Hub really came into its own as an incredibly useful business support platform during Covid-19, the content it offers holds value that extends way beyond managing the immediate impact of the pandemic.
“Covid-19 revealed that most businesses, and especially SMEs are grossly under-equipped to deal with a significant economic crisis, even one at a far smaller scale than the pandemic, which is why, despite most companies now being able to return to operation, First National Bank is continuing to build its Business Hub platform, including its Covid-19-focused Business Toolkit, with the aim of helping businesses address the core shortcomings and fundamental issues that made them so susceptible to the current crisis,” Mr. Achiampong explains.
He emphasises that while the business toolkit’s main focus areas, like scenario planning, liquidity management, expense cutting and planning, were developed primarily to help business owners to survive the pandemic and then ‘bounce back’ in the post-Covid-19 world, these fundamental business strategies are relevant and very valuable to business owners under any conditions.
“The truth is that most businesses are still in the middle of a significant crisis, and probably will be for some time to come,” Mr. Achiampong says.
“But even those that are already recovering well, can benefit significantly from applying the basic crisis management and resilience building strategies unpacked in the Business Toolkit on the First National Bank business hub, and these will stand them in good stead if they face similar crises in the future, or just in their normal, day-to-day business operations going forward.”
The Business Toolkit covers the four phases of crisis management and consists of educational videos, extensive reading material and a range of templates, tools and process guides designed to enable businesses to equip themselves to react, respond, re-strategize and re-launch when they face a crisis.
