Adeduntan reassured Nigerians that the bank would continue
to support small businesses with access to finance, saying by ensuring that we
up their skills and capabilities either in the areas of preparing basic account
statement, assisting them with choice for technology and basically just
supporting them to work through the cheque.
FirstBank presently the largest lender and would continue to
empower SMEs with capacity building and basic tools to help grow their
businesses.
He said this yesterday at the Lagos State economic summit
‘Ehigbeti 2021’ where an array of international and business leaders gathered
to discuss the theme: ‘For a Greater Lagos: Setting the Tone for the Next
Decade.’
He said: “SMEs are very important aspect of what we do not
just for us as bank but because of the importance to the overall growth and
development of the economy.
“As a bank, FirstBank, we have always been the largest
lender to the SME sector and we have a dedicated portal that we call SME
connect, where we basically support SME providing them with what I call
advisory services.
Speaking further on its support, he said FirstBank is a
pioneer of specailised support towards SMEs.
“I am also aware that the number of banks do have similar
system, the SME connect platform is something that we have had in the bank for
the past 6 to 7 years and it’s something that we are continuously refine, we
refine it regularly, updating it regularly.”
He said: “Our portfolio of SMEs facilities of portfolio is
quite sizable and that is quite understandable given the history of First Bank
and Nigeria. And have been very active in terms of providing whether it is
overdraft, term loan and all types of structure debt instrument to our SME
customers.”
Furthermore, he commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
commitment towards supporting SMEs through its collaboration with the bankers’
committee.
He said: “The last point that is very important that I will
like to mention is that the bankers’ committee which is the committee that
brings together the Governor of the Central Bank and the committee of governors
and the CEOs of the various banks.”
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