Category: Money

 Collins Nweze

TO mark the International Women’s Day, Wema Bank  is set to celebrate female staff members and customers of the bank with a bank-wide event.

Tagged “Generation equality; realising a woman’s right,” the interactive session will draw from the IWD global theme ‘’Each for equal’’ to discuss collective individualism in the drive for gender equality.

Inspired by the substantial role of women in the growth of its business, deliberations at the bank’s event will also address demands on equal pay, equal sharing of unpaid care and domestic work, an end to sexual harassment, all forms of violence against women and girls, healthcare services that respond to our needs, equal participation in politics and decision-making in all areas of life.

The session is scheduled to hold today at Wema Bank branches. The session is also open to customers, especially members of the bank’s women-support community, SARA by Wema.

The event will further promote the SARA by Wema community, which has empowered over 10,000 women since its launch in March, last year through financial literacy programmes.

Read Also: Wema Bank, 3D Zebra Crossing partner

According to Funmilayo Falola, Head of Brand and Marketing, Wema Bank, “the event will champion the discourse that we are all responsible for our thoughts and actions. As a bank, we believe that we can actively choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievement.”

Beyond celebrating the International Women’s Day, the bank is partnering Afro-soul queen, Aramide to host Songversation with Aramide, a concert-style event that celebrates the achievement of women in Nigeria.

The partnership will also see the bank support three women-owned businesses with N100,000 each. Last year, catering and food packaging business, Tasty Corridors, fashion and luxury style startups, Exotic Mee and Radiant Couture received a N100,000 grant, which helped three businesses to add up on equipment, while also providing them with global recognition and networking opportunities.

 Collins Nweze

FIRSTBank of Nigeria Limited and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Adesola Adeduntan have been awarded the African Bank of the Year and African Banking Personality of the Year 2019 at the Eighth African Leadership Magazine Persons of the Year Award dinner.

The event themed ‘’Africa for Africans – Exploring the gains of a connected continent’’, was held at Johannesburg, South Africa.

The FirstBank CEO was honoured in recognition of his significant contribution to the financial industry and Africa’s socio-economic development while FirstBank which celebrated it quasquicentennial anniversary last year, was identified for its leading role at demonstrating high performance across various metrics, in terms of maintaining public trust, business integrity, corporate governance, ethical codes of conduct, excellent customer service and innovative banking products and offerings.

Adeduntan dedicated the awards to his colleagues at FirstBank of Nigeria and FBNBank, its business footprints in over half a dozen countries across three continents.

The event had in attendance over 200 prominent political, business and diplomatic leaders, including President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina; South African Deputy President, David D Mabuza, South African Ministers Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Lindiwe Zulu, and Publisher, African Leadership Magazine, Dr. Ken Giami.

By Collins Nweze

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Bank Plc, Ifie Sekibo, has called for increased support for Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in order to achieve the country’s quest for double digit economic growth.

Noting the improvement in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate to 2.27 percent in 2019 from 1.91 percent in 2018, Sekibo said that increasing support to MSMEs, given their dominant role in the economy, will help to leapfrog Nigeria to double digit GDP growth rate.

Read Also: Osinbajo to MSMEs: Take advantage of incentives, other FG initiatives

Highlighting the importance of MSMEs contributions to the nation’s economy, he said: “Nigeria has 41.5 million MSMEs which contributed about 48 percent of the GDP in the last five years. With a total number of about 17.4 million, MSMEs account for about 50 percent of industrial jobs and nearly 90 percent of the manufacturing sector, in terms of number of enterprises in the country.”

Speaking in a chat, Sekibo said for Nigeria to achieve its aim as giant of Africa or as an economy to be reckoned with in the world, a lot of mileage needs to be covered in the SMEs sub-sector.

By Collins Nweze

Over 2,000 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) have so far benefitted from the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) empowerment initiative for women-owned businesses, known as SheVentures.

The programme was launched in March 2019. The benefits of the initiative cuts across mentoring, capacity building and zero interest loans, ranging from N500,000.00 to N5 million.

The FCMB SheVentures, with a unique feature of zero-interest rate for a period of three months, is anchored on supporting women with vision.

Speaking at an event in Lagos to celebrate the one-year anniversary of FCMB SheVentures, the Group Chief Executive of FCMB Group Plc, Ladi Balogun, described the initiative as a game changer in the quest of the lender to upscale the performance of SMEs.

Read Also: Tips on entrepreneurship, by Wigwe, others

The event, which formed part of activities of FCMB to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day, was graced by the First Lady of Ogun State, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun; Managing Director, Rose of Sharon Group and Executive Vice Chairman, Famfa Oil, Folorunsho Alakija , former Deputy Governor of Lagos, Sarah Sosan, among others.

Balogun said: ‘’as shown in our ranking as the number one in SME Banking in Nigeria by KPMG, we are not just focused on the basic banking procedures when it comes to our customers, but also fully committed to delivering services and offerings that ensure that they derive good returns from their relationship with us.”

“We are excited to note that with FCMB SheVentures, we have expanded the frontiers of support to businesses…

“FCMB is pleased to play a leading role in the quest to  bring socio-economic transformation to Nigeria’’.

In her presentation titled, ‘’Women Supporting Women’’, the Guest Speaker,  Alakija, who is rated as Africa’s richest woman, commended women entrepreneurs for their resilience.

Wife of Ogun State governor Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun urged female entrepreneurs to brace up to the challenges of the socio-economic realities.

Taofik Salako,  Capital Market Editor

EDO State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has indicated the willingness of his government to access long-term funds from the capital market to support ongoing developmental agenda for the state.

Obaseki spoke in Lagos during a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as part of mobilisation campaign for the forthcoming National Sports Festival (NSF).

Edo State will be holding the 20th NSF tagged ‘Edo 2020’ in Benin City from March 22 to April 1.

Obaseki, a leading financier and founder of Afrinvest West Africa, one of Nigeria’s major capital market operators, was honoured with the ceremonial beating of the closing gong.

While he did not provide details of the capital raising plan, the governor said the state would come at an appropriate time to raise one or two instruments for developmental projects.

He solicited the support of the capital market community towards the successful hosting of the forthcoming sports festival noting that the capital market has traditionally been playing important roles in the development of sports.

According to him, about 25 years ago, the President of the NSE then, the late Chief MKO Abiola had chaired the fund-raiser for the Olympic for that year.

“Today, we are here to solicit the support of the capital market community in participating and supporting the National Sports Festival. The National Sport Festival is very important as it not only caters for the interest of young people but it is an event put together in uniting the country,” Obaseki said.

He pointed out that the NSF and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were among the policy instruments put in place by the government to unite the country after the civil war.

He added that Edo State is using the sports festival as one of its contributions towards enhancing unity of the country.

Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema, commended the government of Edo State for many developmental initiatives, including civil service reforms, Edo Production centre, Edo Innovation hub and the new enterprise and industrial hub among others.

He reiterated the support of the capital market for the state’s developmental agenda noting that all the initiatives require funding, which the market can provide.

Collins Nweze

MANAGING Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan, has reiterated the bank’s commitment to gender parity among staff.

In a message to commemorate International Women’s Day (IWD) 2020, Akinwuntan said this year’s edition with the theme: #EachforEqual underscores the compelling need of gender equality and sustainable efforts of women empowerment at workplace for which Ecobank is proudly committed.

He said: “For us in Ecobank, this event allows us to reflect on the achievements of female Ecobankers and other great achievers in our space and society. Ecobank is proud to support change makers of all ages in the global movement to advance gender equality and empower women. We always remind ourselves of our corporate pledge to ensure parity. Ecobank women have distinguished themselves and continue to make impact in the various roles in the bank. We use this opportunity of the IWD to celebrate these great Ecobankers.”

He enjoined women to continue to sustain the gains of the recently-launched Ecobank Female Entrepreneurs Initiative, which is designed to provide women with necessary support to help them excel in their various endeavours, promote and grow their businesses and position them for greater participation and validation, and also contribute in their various environment, including business, stressing that their future is bright.

Collins Nweze

CRC Credit Bureau Limited has launched a mobile application to help individuals know what their credit score is. Financial institutions make use of credit scores to determine who qualifies for a loan.

The company says the new mobile app, CRC Mobile, is the first of its kind in the Nigerian Credit Bureau industry. With CRC Mobile, individuals now have access to their credit information and credit scores through their mobile phones. The CRC Mobile App is available for immediate download on the Google and Apple Play stores.

The CRC Mobile Application was launched at CRC Credit Bureau’s 10th Anniversary at the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos with an introductory video that showcased its different features and how it can be used to subscribe to the various credit monitoring products /services that CRC has to offer including its CRC Score and CRC Self Enquiry Credit reports.

The Managing Director/CEO of CRC Credit Bureau Limited, Tunde Popoola, said the launch of the mobile application was one of the innovations that the company has created to enable consumers in Nigeria and diaspora access information that empowers them to take control of their financial reputation and be better informed.

Prior to taking a loan, they can also monitor their exposures for accurate reporting and the reduction of identity fraud.

CRC Credit Bureau has 13 products and services that are all available on the mobile application CRC Mobile.

After download, users of the mobile app are required to register, to be able to access any of the products/services on the application. They must also use the same details used to register for their Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) while registering their details on the application for authentication, for example, mobile phone numbers.

Collins Nweze

ACCESS Bank Plc has been ranked the overall best company in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability in Nigeria  in 2019 as published in Forbes Africa.

The ranking was based on a result drawn from impact assessments of 910 organisations operating in Nigeria over the last 13 years.

According to the report, the ranking took into cognizance Access Bank’s participation in impactful national projects, its recognitions and ratings from international award bodies, investment in CSR and sustainability in the period under review.

The Head, Sustainability, Access Bank Plc., Omobolanle Victor-Laniyan said: “Access Bank has a corporate strategy and philosophy, which places sustainability at its core. We ensure that our projects and initiatives are impactful and strategically linked with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

“Over the years we have recorded outstanding results by undertaking several initiatives across the country, and we are deeply honoured to be recognised as the overall best company in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability,” Victor-Laniyan added.

Having launched the Nigerian Green Bond Market Development Programme in June 2018, Access Bank’s determination to promote sustainable growth through funding of projects at a lower cost of capital, led to the issuance of a N15 billion (USD41 million) corporate green bond in 2019. The issue is the first-ever Climate Bonds Initiative certified corporate green bond in Africa.

Collins Nweze

The banking sector needs to drive their operations with the right technology for improved performance, Co-Founder, Riquesa Africa, Ayodeji Razaq has said.

He said the purchasing power of Nigerians has been on decline, and that this has been  affecting the the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) segment of the economy.

In an interview, he said: “The reality right now is that, over the last couple of years there has been a downward slide in the spending power of the average Nigerian. This has resulted in the redefining and restructuring of the Fast- Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector. We now have many new entrants into the segment with cheaper goods to cater to a consumer audience with reduced spending power”.

Continuing, Razaq said: “What that now means is that we now have more goods with varying prices and the established FMCG brands are now in a dog fight for share of market with new entrants with cheaper prices. The concern now for these top brands is stay at current level and lose market share or reduce price to combat the new entrants? Brand and marketing managers across the country, especially in FMCG have to constantly answer this question daily. Now there is no right or wrong approach here, as a matter of fact, the only correct approach is to understand your consumer and meet those needs”.

He said lifting the purchasing power of Nigerians would require the involvement of all the sectors.

“The improving of our economy would ultimately improve the purchasing power and the FMCG sector. The bodies who are tasked with strengthening the economy have a huge job on their hands.  As a marketing professional, the work we do daily to improve the bottomline for our clients naturally go a long way to strengthen and grow their businesses, grow the Naira, improve the sector and ultimately the economy,” he said.

Razaq said the age of technology is here. The growth of the telecoms sector is directly linked to this age. “We are in the tweet it, snap it, post it era. Everyone is getting plugged in to the internet. As a matter of fact, not being connected now is detrimental to a lot of businesses and individuals. He explained that data consumption is on the rise, that can only mean more money into that sector.

“With all these in mind, the growth witnessed in that sector is to be expected. If I may so boldly venture, it would increase in the coming years as we are now going digital on everything, including smart homes and smart cars amongst many others. Long may it last,” he said.