Nume Ekeghe
The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc and the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have assured small medium enterprises (SMEs) that the 2019 Lagos International Trade Fair will bring far reaching benefits that would help transform their businesses.
UBA’s Head, Group Consumer Retail Business, Mr. Jude Anele, gave the assurance yesterday, at a media briefing to officially herald the 2019 Lagos international Trade Fair as well as unveil sponsors of the fair.
He said the bank has put in place various service offerings to guarantee that this year’s fair provides a veritable platform to catalyse businesses to new highs.
He explained that the 33rd edition of Lagos International Trade Fair scheduled to commence on November 1st, 2019, was expected to provide an avenue for networking, trade and investment bound to boost business activities in Africa’s largest economy and by extension, Africa.
While ensuring that SMEs maximise their presence at the fair, Anele explained that UBA would provide an uninterrupted banking services during the two-week event, and also provide advisory services to the small and medium entrepreneurs, fundamental to achieving their business goals.
He said, “Worthy of mention is that merchants and entrepreneurs from other African countries and abroad would be able to conduct their transactions seamlessly without currency exchange hassles, using the extensive reach of UBA as a pan African bank with presence in key commercial capitals in the world.
“We have realised that critical to the success of SMEs in Africa is not necessarily access to finance, but their understanding of business and accounting mechanisms, process and procedures critical to their growth and existence especially on e-commerce, tax management, and bookkeeping and access to funding, and these are issues which we are trying to address.”
Speaking on the ease of payment during the event, especially with African companies from outside Nigeria, Anele disclosed that UBA has successfully put in place solutions that would see ease of payment within Africa.
“UBA will be deploying state-of-art Point of Terminals(POS) configured towards ensuring merchants receive immediate values in currencies of their choice,” Anele assured.
The bank further said that in line with its unflinching support towards the growth of SMEs, it has reached an agreement with the organisers of the fair to give 20 per cent discount to its SMEs.
A key activity at this year’s fair is the Africa Special Day, to be organised by UBA to promote Intra-African Trade. “At UBA, we believe that Africans must grow trade and investment amongst themselves.
“In pursuits of that goal, Africa Special Day will seek for the promotion of trade and investment among African countries.”
Also speaking, the Chairman, Trade Promotion Board, Mr. Gabriel Idahosa promised that the 33rd edition of West Africa’s flagship fair would bring utmost value to entrepreneurs and businesses in Nigeria and beyond.
