Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

BoI, Ecobank seal pact on intervention for SMEs

By Femi Adekoya
21 July 2016   |   1:47 am
The Bank of Industry (BoI) has partnered with Ecobank Nigeria to aid financial intermediation services to Small and Medium Enterprises as part of measures to drive inclusive growth ...
Acting Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Mr. Waheed Olagunju

Acting Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Mr. Waheed Olagunju

• Deal to foster credit delivery, financial inclusion

The Bank of Industry (BoI) has partnered with Ecobank Nigeria to aid financial intermediation services to Small and Medium Enterprises as part of measures to drive inclusive growth and development in the country.

The Acting Managing Director, BoI, Waheed Olagunju, explained that the partnership is aimed at providing the necessary support required to encourage SMEs both in terms of funding and capacity building, maintaining that most SMEs lack the capacity to put to use loans borrowed judiciously.

Indeed, the acting Managing Director stated that between 2010 and 2014, Nigeria was among the top ten fastest growing economy in the world with average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 37 per cent, but however stated that the poverty indices did not match the rise in GDP.

“In other words, we did not achieve an inclusive growth and unemployment continues to rise. One of the factors responsible for this is the lack of inclusive growth and this is because there has not been financial inclusion,” he said.

Olagunju during a press briefing said: ”What we are signing today is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). For us to achieve inclusive growth there is a need to achieve financial inclusion. We have been coming out with strategies to deepen our credit delivery process to cover the entire the country and as part of our strategy, we have always evolved to work with commercial banks and this is why signed a MoU with 10 Small and Medium Enterprise (S‎ME) friendly commercial banks. This MoU is to deepen our partnership to develop the SME sub sector”.

According to him, Ecobank is one of the most developed focus banks in the country, saying that this is why the bank is taking its age long partnership with the development finance institution (DFI) to another level.

“Like most MoUs, this is a framework to jointly deliver our services. In terms of disbursements, we will be disbursing through them. We can also jointly evaluate the performances of our customers. We are collaborating to support SMEs because they require a lot of support.

“The MoU will also feature jointly financed capacity building programmes for SMEs to build their capacity to achieve a judicious use of the loans they borrow. Through our partnership, they can also leverage concessional funding from Africa’s development partners,” he added.

Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Nigeria, Charles Kie, said in terms of development of countries and in particular African countries, history has revealed that ‎SMEs have been largely underestimated in terms of their contribution the GDP, noting that the sector has not been adequately captured and served.
He pointed out that Nigeria being the largest economy in the continent must develop the SME sector because of the key role it plays in supporting the growth of a country.

“At Ecobank, we believe have a key role play in supporting SMEs. The relationship that we have built with the BOI is now materialising into this MoU. We are going to use this as a basis to further deepen the relationship and serve the SMEs in order to provide proper solutions to grow their businesses. More importantly, we are looking at supporting SMEs in their growth for the time because what is key is that they do not remain SMEs overtime. We believe they can move from SMEs to large corporate and even to international corporate,” he said.

He added, “This is the role we see ourselves playing and also ensuring that we are partnering them for the long-term and also supporting the growth and development of Nigeria. What SMEs need is a bank that is close to them and that has a level of proximity that they need. SMEs need platforms to transact and through our mobile platforms, ATMs and all electronic platforms we have invested in, we can offer the kind of platform that is needed in order to help them transact in ease. We are here to help SMEs and what we are signing today is a testimony of our dedication to this very vital segment of the economy.”
The Group Executive, Consumer Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan, said financial inclusion means making it practical for every Nigerian to participate formally in the financial system, having access to support and taking charge of their financial destiny.

He said given the land mass and the geographic spread of Nigeria, the cost of access has been a major impediment hindering the growth of SMEs

“The BOI for us is a natural partner and we are very pleased to be here today with the objective of encouraging Nigerians to participate actively by leveraging the mobile to open an account and leveraging the huge financial sector and training programmes provided by the BOI,” he added.

“In the financial inclusion space, we have a good history of active participation in the nation’s financial inclusion space and we are bringing this into the partnership. We also have an electronic platform for SMEs that wants to do their transactions online which means that the reach of the SMEs that sign up onto the Ecobank electronic platform is beyond Nigeria. This is why we are very confident that this partnership is key to achieve growth and economic development,” he said.

0 Comments