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UT Bank Limited Ghana has signed a US$15m joint-equity investment with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and the Africa Capitalisation Fund Ltd. which is managed by the IFC Asset Management Company, Ltd. The investment will help expand UT Bank�s lending to small and medium businesses in Ghana. IFC will also extend an Advisory Services programme to strengthen UT Bank�s risk management and corporate governance practices. The combination of additional capital from IFC and world-class expertise through the advisory services programme will support UT Bank as it continues to implement its strategy of expanding its SME and consumer lending business. �Small and medium businesses are powerful drivers of growth in African economies, but they often face challenges in getting appropriate finance,� said Mary-Jean Moyo, IFC Country Manager for Ghana. �IFC�s partnership with UT Bank will provide banking services to underserved entrepreneurs, helping build businesses and create jobs in Ghana.� UT Bank is Ghana's leading SME and consumer lending Bank, and was last year voted as the best Bank in Short-term finance. UT, which is currently listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, was founded in 1997 as a non-bank financial services company by Ghanaian entrepreneurs Prince Kofi Amoabeng and Joseph Nsonamoah, and has grown rapidly to become one of Ghana�s most respected companies. At the 2011 Annual General Meeting, shareholders of UT Bank passed a resolution enabling the Directors of the Bank to raise additional capital to meet Bank of Ghana�s new capitalisation requirement of GH�60m. As a result of IFC�s equity investment, the Bank will successfully attain the new capitalisation requirement.�IFC is the world's largest development institution focused on the private sector, and its investment constitutes a welcome affirmation of the commercial success of the "UT Way", as well as the positive social and developmental impact UT has made in Ghana,� said UT�s CEO, Mr. Amoabeng.The CEO added that IFC�s investment will help spur the development of Ghana's SME and mid-market companies, and prepare the Bank for future growth opportunities in the economy�. UT Bank commenced business as a Finance house in 1997. It evolved from a lending company to a publicly-owned Universal Bank with shares listed and actively traded on the GSE.By all accounts, the bank does what it says -- it lends to real people.