FirstBank Organises Agric Expo

FirstBank Organises Agric Expo

FirstBank of Nigeria Limited has announced that its 2019 Agric Expo will hold on Friday, 30 August 2019, in Lagos. The 2019 edition – the third in the series –  is themed Agricultural Value Chain – Spotlighting Opportunities and Managing Risks.” It would have Professor Benedict Oramah, President of AFREXIM Bank as the keynote speaker. 

“The annual FirstBank Agric Expo, launched in 2017 provides the lead in national discourse on sustainable agriculture value-chain as a substantial source of Nigeria’s economic development, improved contribution to her balance of trade as well as foreign exchange. 

The 2019 edition would host over 600 delegates and over 60 exhibitors to display the latest technology in farm equipment, tools and machineries as well as packaged finished agricultural produce, logistics and supply, thereby keeping the participants and sundry agribusiness practitioners abreast with new opportunities in the Agricultural industry,” the bank stated.

Besides the plenary session, the expo would feature three Masterclasses with in-depth analysis on specific areas of Agribusiness, facilitated by enterprising Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). 

The Masterclass facilitators include Mr. Leonard Anyanwu, Group Executive Director, Saro International Limited; Mr Segun Ogunwale, Team Lead, Kominity Digital and Mr Bamidele Ayemibo Managing Director, 3T Impex Trade Centre, who will provide insight as well as share success stories and experiences. 

Commenting about the forthcoming event, the CEO, FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan said, “in the last 125 years, more than any other financial institution, we have played a key role in financing different sectors of not just the Nigerian economy but other economies in sub-Saharan Africa. 

“As Nigeria expands opportunities in its non-oil sector – especially Agriculture – we remain committed to the growth of the agricultural sector and its contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.”

 United Capital Unveils ‘InvestNow’

 

As part of its plans to broaden its retail reach, United Capital Limited has released its Investnow app on iOS. InvestNow is a simplified investment application developed to boost accessibility of investment options while enabling one to make returns on their investments. The new InvestNow iOS app debuts with an improved, intuitive and user-friendly interface allowing users to easily sign up, choose an investment product, open an account, fund it and gain returns all from their mobile phones. It also allows users to setup recurrent direct debit transactions, which 

automatically make deposits into their investment accounts from their regular bank accounts. 

 

According to the Group Chief Executive Officer, United Capital, Peter Ashade, “While aligning with our ongoing retail strategy, these upgrades represent another step in the series of innovations aimed at positioning United Capital as a future facing organisation. 

“By providing seamless and delightful user experience to our clients we are taking our award-winning investment options to more people to help them make the intelligent choice and in the long run, deepen our financial inclusion drive.”

 

InvestNow is available for free to android and iOS users on their respective app stores. Individuals can now set up accounts like the Money Market Fund, Eurobond Fund, Securities Trading, Heritage Trust and the Private Investment Trust. For the not so savvy mobile phone users, they can also take advantage of its upgraded website investnow.ng which offers the same level of intuitiveness and smoothness as the other InvestNow channels.

 

 Unity Bank Partners Signal Alliance, Businessday 

Unity Bank has hosted the maiden edition of SME clinic in conjunction with Signal Alliance and Businessday Newspaper as a capacity building workshop to bridge knowledge gap for SMEs. The SME clinic was designed to boost SMEs operators in leveraging effective branding and marketing strategy expected play key role in creating added value for products and making start up become a big brand enterprise. 

Coming on the verge of the 5th industrial revolution and the need to put SMEs ahead of the fast paced developments, the clinic provided platform to expose participants drawn amongst fintech operators, retailers, social services, schools, contractors, professional service firms, wholesalers, manufacturers, hospitality, NGOs, clubs and Associations, Supplies and Agric value chain to the opportunities available as convergence of technology and human begin to take center stage.

Commenting on the Clinic, the Head of SME, Unity Bank Plc, Opeyemi Ojesina said as a key market focus contributing about 48per cent of the national GDP in the last five years, 50per cent of industrial jobs and nearly 90 per cent of the manufacturing sector in terms of number of enterprises, hosting a capacity building initiative of this nature enables the bank to have more insight for enhancing financial inclusion plan for SMEs. 

He further stated that as a bank in the advocacy for SME, Unity Bank had developed innovative products for SMEs aimed at enhancing greater access to financial services, financial advisory and cluster marketing initiatives. 

The Chief Technology Officer, Signal Alliance, Mr Uchechi Nwaukwa used the platform to launch CloudGo, an IT product built on Microsoft cloud platform. 

As a “solution that enhances communication, collaboration and scales innovation for business becomes a necessity” he further stated that, “the product is a results of huge investment in IT infrastructure which helps to overcome upgrade challenges, enhance data protection and disaster recovery challenges faced by small businesses.”

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