– About 50 women entrepreneurs in Cameroon’s commercial and industrial city, Douala, have sharpened their skills on how to meet up with requirements for obtaining loans in commercial banks. This is thanks to a training workshop organized in their honour by the Standard Chartered of Cameroon on the theme, “Building my credit skills.”

According to a release published on Cameroon Tribune, the training workshop was initiated under the bank’s ‘Employee Volunteering’ with focus on women entrepreneurs who hitherto had difficulties living up to standards with loan requirements in some banks. Besides the complex bank requirements that made things hard for the entrepreneurs, the Douala workshop also diagnosed that some female entrepreneurs had insufficient mastery of their business cycles notably on what stage of their business needs financing, the important role played by a clear and truthful audit report among others.

The Head of Compliance and Financial Crimes at Standard Chartered Bank of Cameroon, Anna Asonganyi, is quoted to have said that, “As a bank, we have uniquely positioned to help people learn about basics of credit and banking, helping empower less advantaged groups and creating a more inclusive growth.”

Loans, according to Ghislain Boukosso, Credit Analyst, are the key levers of business and form the basis for development. “Loans connect the funding needs of clients and those in excess of funding, while financing economic growth,” he said. A good loan portfolio, he added, consists of a report of the environment for industries, strength and weaknesses of the enterprise, a mastery of the business enterprise cycle, the financial state of the enterprise, purpose of the loan, a business plan and a treasury statement.