The COVID-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on economic activity and small businesses are bearing the brunt of this crisis in both developed and developing countries.

GroFin finances small businesses in some of the world’s most vulnerable economies. We are hard at work to increase the resilience of these communities as they deal with the fallout of the outbreak.

Our model has always centred on providing entrepreneurs with continuous support and advice. We realise that it is even more crucial than ever before during an unprecedented crisis like this. As such, we have taken several measures to continue assisting our clients despite the challenges presented by the virus and are responding as follows:

Ensuring we can continue servicing SMEs

The health and safety of GroFin’s staff and clients are our highest priority. We ensured a safe working environment for staff across our markets by implementing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures to limit the possibility of infection. The majority of GroFin staff is working from home and we plan to extend this to all staff within the next week. All our core business platforms are available remotely so that we can continue operating and engaging with our clients using digital platforms.

Advising SMEs on measures against the spread of COVID-19

We have also focused on helping our clients to minimise contagion risk to their own employees and customers. GroFin’s Impact team developed a COVID-19 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework, drawing on international best practise on this lifesaving issue. This ESG framework has been shared with our clients and the GroFin Investment team is providing them with support and advice to implement the measures it recommends.

Providing support to our clients

Unlike commercial lenders, we decided not to take a portfolio approach to assess the impact of the outbreak on our investees. In line with our focus on providing entrepreneurs with continuous support, we developed a toolkit to assess the disruption and impact on key business elements of each SME in our portfolio.

We believe this will allow GroFin to use our expertise to provide appropriate advice to each entrepreneur, while also giving us a view on the viability of each business during and after disruptions to their operations. The outcomes of this assessment will determine our actions to be taken per client. Where available, we will also link our investees to local relief options like government support.

As an organisation working with SMEs in some of the most challenging markets, we have always been amazed and inspired by the resilience, determination and ingenuity of the entrepreneurs who are our clients. They will need all these qualities to overcome this crisis but can rest assured that GroFin will be there to support them throughout it.

Brienne van der Walt

Chief Executive Officer, GroFin