LAHORE -ACCA has joined forces with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to educate and facilitate SMEs in Multan region in order to support their financial viability and ensure ease of access to finance. 
Both the organisations are jointly setting up an exclusive virtual SME clinic to offer an opportunity to small and medium sized enterprises and aspiring entrepreneurs in the South Punjab region to get expert counselling on how to maintain healthy cash flows amidst the current pandemic and to facilitate their easy access to finance. 
The clinic will be conducted by Muhammad Ali ACCA, Assistant Director, State Bank of Pakistan who will share all the resources both the organisations have in place to support businesses, with focus on raising awareness of how to get access to capital using formal banking system. 
ACCA’s recent global survey reveals that the SMEs are hardest hit by Covid-19 and there’s a need for a collective effort to help their future viability, with 53% of SME respondents indicating managing cash flow is now a problem, compared to 46% in the March survey. SMEs are also more pessimistic about their revenue predictions, with 85% predicting negative revenue compared to the last year. Nearly one quarter of SMEs are still focused on the short-term period, compared to a tenth of their larger counterparts, due to SMEs having to manage their operating fundamentals to survive.