Stanbic IBTC partners business school on financing S

STANBIC IBTC Bank, a member of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, and IE Business School, a leading business school in Spain, have signed a direct financing agreement to help people acquire the relevant skills in entrepreneurship and business.
  
The parties signed the MoU in Lagos, recently to kick-start the partnership, which the lender would provide loan facilities for students enrolled in IE’s top ranked MBA programmes.
  
IE is ranked third Business School in Europe by the Financial Times, with its Global Executive MBA ranked first by the Economist.
  
The collaboration, which will be operative for an initial period of one year from May 2015 and renewable for another year, covers financing for IE’s MBA and Executive MBA programmes.   
  
Stanbic IBTC Bank will finance a part or the total cost of the programmes, which IE offers to qualified candidates accepted to the programme in the form of an Unsecured Personal Loan.
  
The Executive Director, Personal and Business Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Obinnia Abajue, said the partnership fits into the institution’s goal of fostering economic empowerment through strategic interventions that enable individuals and businesses realize their aspirations.
 
Similar capacity-building initiatives spanning various sectors of the economy, including MSME, transport and logistics, trade and finance have also been organized by the Stanbic IBTC Group on an ongoing basis to support individuals and businesses, Obinnia stated.
 
“The partnership with IE opens another window of opportunity to empower people for self-development and actualisation. It is in sync with our operating mantra, which is moving forward.
  
“At Stanbic IBTC Bank, we are mindful of the fact that socio-economic growth and development are anchored on sound education and robust infrastructural base. This conviction underscores our strategic interventions in critical sectors of the economy, including education,” he said.
  
IE’s Vice Chairman, Diego Del Alcazar Benjumea, who noted that the institution is dedicated to building business leaders worldwide, stated that Stanbic IBTC Bank was chosen for the partnership after a thorough appraisal revealed its uncommon commitment to multi-sectoral capacity-building and economic empowerment.
  
Having become Africa’s biggest economy, with the rebasing exercise showing underreported sectors such as telecommunications, entertainment, and retail, IE´s Country Director, Eniola Harrison, said Nigeria requires, a critical mass of skilled manpower to drive its future growth, in both the public and private sectors, while sustaining its growing international profile and reputation.