MD/CEO of
Heritage Bank Plc, Ifie Sekibo gave this submission on the sidelines of the
14th Annual Banking and Finance Conference of the Chartered Institute of
Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) with a theme: “Economic Recovery, Inclusion &
Transformation: The Role of Banking and Finance.”
According
to the statement sent and endorsed by Ozena Utulu, Acting Group Head, Corporate
Communication in the bank saying one of the key areas where government,
financial institutions and other stakeholders can move this nation from poverty
to prosperity is through conscious creation of viable environment for small
businesses and young entrepreneurs to thrive because they are the backbone of
local economies around the world – they happen to be the biggest employers, job
creators and contributors of the national gross domestic products.
“We cannot
talk about moving from poverty to prosperity without taking SMEs very seriously
in this country.
“We must
support the SMEs sector reform through providing infrastructure, providing
loans to farmers and ensuring interest rate loans is single digit,” he
affirmed.
Sekibo who
was represented at the conference by the Regional Head Abuja-1, Daniel Oniko,
stated that giving SMEs and young entrepreneurs leverage to contribute
immensely to the development of their host community through engaging the
youths and unemployed individuals will bring about and facilitate economic
recovery.
He
emphasized that the role of SMEs in creating and sustaining national
development in relation to job creation has been considered a key tool in
modern-day poverty alleviation, economic emancipation, and total well-being.
The MD,
however disclosed, “One of Heritage Bank’s major cardinal point as a bank is
supporting micro, small and medium scale businesses and our strong desire to
see young men and women succeed in any area of their business. This will help
the society and economy to grow, thereby moving the nation from poverty to
prosperity, he added.
He noted that Heritage Bank was taking the
lead through various initiatives such as its youth entrepreneurship development
programmes which were aimed at increasing the contributions of the MSME segment
to the economy.
He further explained that the entrepreneur
schemes of the bank in the support for business had always focused on
dependable job-creating sectors such as the agricultural value chain: fish
farming, poultry, snail farming, etc., cottage industry, mining and solid
minerals, creative industry: tourism, arts and crafts, and Information and
Communication Technology (ICT).
“it is time for the sector to take on some of
the transformative big-ticket items that would fundamentally transform our
economy. Such matters include consumer finance but housing finance.
“In his goodwill message, the Governor of the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele stated that the banking sector
remained well positioned to support the recovery efforts of the monetary and
fiscal authorities.
“Clearly, Nigeria’s banks have become not only
strong and resilient but have also carved a good niche in the world to
consolidate on the growth and resilience of the banks in the last decades”, he
added.
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