Nume Ekeghe
First Bank Nigeria has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in a bid to enhance business activities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and drive the digital transformation and growth of the sub-sector in Nigeria.
The MoU was signed at First Bank’s headquarters in Lagos.
The Chief Executive Officer, First Bank, Dr Adesola Adeduntan, who was represented by the Executive Director, Chief Risk Officer, First Bank, Mr Segun Alebiosu said, “This is a great honour to have you here with us as we jointly embark on this remarkable and highly rewarding journey that is set to change not just our bank and your organisation, but the fortune of our dear nation, Nigeria.
“At FirstBank, we understand the critical roles that SMEs play in the growth of a nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through diversification of the economy, job creation, wealth distribution and social stability. This is one of the driving forces behind our SME connect initiative through which we offer bespoke financing and non-financing solutions to meet the needs of our growing SME community.
“For instance, in 2022, we disbursed about N455billion in value, via tailor-made loan products to support SMEs in various industry segments and we have also continued to deploy various innovative e-payment products and services to aid SMEs’ trade and collections and in the process, create a seamless experience of doing business.”
In his response, the Director General, SMEDAN, Olawale Fasanya, stated that SMEDAN is happy to be partnering with First Bank in promoting the group SMEs in the country.
Fasanya observed that trust is the major issue affecting the growth of SMEs and most times when the people know that the government is involved, they see it as a dividend of democracy not to pay back.
“However, we are trying our best to play a lot of advocacy to let SMEs know that there is no free money anywhere and also to discourage the government being directly involved in lending to SMEs, “he said.
