How Biashara.Now helped Regimental Forcequip Suppliers to ride the Covid-19 crisis
Access to finance and skills are often cited as key vitalities in the survival and growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). Among the pillars of Invest in Africa’s (IIA) mission is to enhance access to finance and skills for Small and Medium (SMEs). This has been possible through the Biashara.Now platform, where businesses are prequalified to access financing and skills development opportunities availed in the IIA partnership ecosystem.
Bernadette Kanja, the Managing Director for Regimental Forcequip Suppliers, is proud to have qualified membership on Biashara.Now platform, where she has accessed exceptional opportunities to lead her business through the fierce business crisis.
Regimental Forcequip Suppliers is a Kenyan-based SME in the textile industry, that specializes in corporate uniforms. According to the Managing Director, the business experienced serious downturn amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. At some point, the business needed funds to finance a local purchase order, that was the only hope to save the business from shutting down. While looking for the funds, Bernadette came across Biashara.Now platform and registered her business. Upon prequalification for the membership, she was linked to a flexible financing for the LPO. This was key in rebounding the business and enabling it to maintain its employees at a time when most enterprises were laying off workforce.
Bernadette also got an opportunity to enroll in the IIA SME Recovery and Resilience program. This program is curated for the Biashara.Now member SMEs to build their capacity to survive the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and scale up. She is specifically cognizant of the positive trajectory the business has taken as a result of employing best business practices learned from this program. Under this initiative, IIA assigned her a certified Business Development Coach, among other SMEs, who helped her to come up with a winning strategy to lead the business through the crisis.
“The business coach helped us to revamp our marketing approach, and this has given us a lot of hope because our old clients have started coming back” Bernadette says during an interview with IIA-Kenya.
Biashara.Now presents Member SMEs with opportunities for skills development, finance linkages and market. Bernadette is just one among the many business leaders who are happy to have survived the challenging business environment by leveraging opportunities within the platform.
Click Here to watch a video of the whole story as Bernadette narrates how Biashara.Now has become the source of hope for her business.
