First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited will this week, host businesses and other stakeholders involved in export trade at a forum in Lagos.
The event with the theme: “Enhancing Capacity for Export Trade”, is in partnership with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
The interactive forum is in continuation of the bank’s efforts to boost export trade and help customers tap into the numerous benefits associated with the business through sensitisation and capacity enhancement.
The Executive Director/Chief Executive of the NEPC, Olusegun Awolowo, and top officials of the Nigeria Export-Import Bank and Bank of Industry are expected to attend the forum with other regulatory bodies.
According to the Executive Director, Business Development of FCMB, Adam Nuru, “the customer’s forum is another way FCMB demonstrates the willingness to go the extra mile towards contributing to the growth of their businesses”.
According to him, the bank is committed to assisting stakeholders to reduce challenges that hinder effective export trade in the country.
NIGERIA lost $83.3 billion from 1960 to 2011 through illicit financial flows, Africa Development Bank (ADB) Country Office Director, Dr. Orismane Dore has said.
Dore, who spoke at the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) Investiture, held in Lagos, said the loss arose from over invoicing of imports and under-invoicing of exports.
Speaking on the theme: “Diversifying the Revenue Base of the Nigerian Economy: Strategy Options”, Dore, represented by the Chief Economist, AfDB, Nigeria Country, Zerihun Alemu, said the time to diversify the economy is now should be done by improving tax reform and tax administration to include potential additional tax payers. He said 75 per cent of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were not in the tax system.
Improving the tax system, he said could help in boosting the revenue base, adding that Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) reports showed that 65 per cent of registered tax payers have not filed their tax returns.
He advised that tax collection be monitored to minimise tax exemption abuses under pioneer status, local content, export promotion, among others, adding that 30 per cent of companies abuse their tax exemption status.
Dore said the non-oil revenue is low due to low tax effort, where non-oil revenue to non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) is 4.6 per cent compared to 15 per cent low income economies and 19 per cent in emerging economies.
He cited low tax efficiency, low Value Added Tax (VAT) collection efficiency due to compliance issues and need for tax reform for the non-oil revenue mobilisation as measures that would help in diversifying the economy.
The deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Corporate Banking, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, said the country is experiencing tough times in the economic sphere because “we lost the opportunity to diversify the economy between 2009 to 2014 when there was stability in the economy and oil boom is the order of the day”.
Adelabu said diversification of the economy is a task for everybody, the government and the organised private sector (OPS) , as increased focus on agriculture, solid minerals and import substitution to promote local industries as being championed by the current regime will help the economy greatly.
The President/Chairman of Council, CIBN, Mrs. Debola Osibogun, in her welcome address said the theme of the investiture is apt at this moment as non-oil revenue declined by 34 per cent at the end of the first quarter of 2015 from the all time high of $3 billion it attained in 2011.
Osibogun, on the investiture, said the number of bankers honoured is the highest ever done by CIBN, which portends great things for the banking and financial sector, as she seeks continued professionalism from the bankers.
Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) has faulted the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) decision to make biometric verification number (BVN) a requirement for foreign exchange transactions.
The CBN forex, issued a circular stipulating the use of BVN for all forex transactions from November 1. It also said it would discontinue the sale of forex to BDCs, which fail to provide BVN of its directors by that date.
In a statement, ABCON faulted the November 1st deadline, saying it is too close. It also said making BVN mandatory for foreign exchange transactions, so soon, without adequate publicity, training and other measures will enhance activities of the parallel market operators and widen the gap between the official exchange rate and the parallel market exchange rate.
According to the statement, “The return of the CBN directives on the use of BVN on sales of foreign exchange to BDC clients will lead to confusion and delay in the use of applicable codes for processing of ‘Form M’.
If adopted, the policy will also lead to cancellation of foreign credit lines by correspondent banks; increase mistrust between regulators and operators and increase misery level of majority of Nigerians already in a significant poverty level.
The policy shift, it added, would lead to decline in public confidence in CBN’s ability to sustain its macroeconomic objectives; set the pace for growing foreign interference in Nigeria’s monetary policies; loss of jobs; increased fraud and other related financial crimes.
The association noted that while it is not totally opposed to the use of the BVN for foreign transactions, it believes that the November 1st date is too early for such policy, in view of the preparations required for smooth implementation.
Consequently, the association, among other things, recommended some measures that would facilitate the introduction of BVN for foreign exchange transactions.
“The CBN should resume training of BDC operators for the use of the BVN platform, and there should be massive sensitisation of the public on the new policy. There should be a CBN/ABCON taskforce to monitor compliance and eliminate non-compliant BDCs, adding that this must be complimented with enhanced security surveillance at the airports and boarders,” it said.
The association also called for harmonisation of the different operational guidelines by the CBN and the National Financial Intelligence Units (NFIU), as well as a review of the scope of BDC operations as defined by the CBN guidelines to reflect current market realities.
The group has also written to the apex bank governor, highlighting the various factors responsible for the sudden rise in the parallel market exchange rate from N212 to N224 per dollar within the last three weeks.
Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN) is organising a business forum to discuss key issues facing banking.
According to its President, Dr. Sunny Kuku, the theme of this year’s forum, “Oversight Functions of the Board: Effectively Managing Key Internal and External Relationships”, is apt in view of recent challenges faced by many organisations.
He said this year’s forum, which will hold in November 17 in Lagos, has become exigent because for organisations to survive and win in the competitive market in turbulent period in the national economy, they need to identify, engage and manage its key internal and external stakeholders, and the role of the board of directors in promoting effective management of these stakeholders cannot be over-emphasised.
Selected renowned experts have been invited as resource persons to lead discussions at the event. Former Managing Director of Accenture, Dr Adedotun Sulaiman, who is a management consultant with specialty in business and organisation strategy, will speak on the management of internal stakeholders while Mr FolaAdeola, a seasoned banker, founder and the first Chief Executive Officer of GTB, will address the management of external stakeholders’ relationships.
The forum, an annual intellectual event organised by BDAN in fulfillment of its mandate of promoting sustainable banking best practices within financial institutions in Nigeria with focus on the internal and external relationships, will bring together other key players and operators in the Nigerian business community. Chairmen, Chief Executives and Non-executive directors of banks and other financial institutions as well as investment advisers and officials of regulatory institutions, professional associations and consultants in the industry are expected to attend the event.
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) financial inclusion project is motivating banks to take their services to the underserved, especially the youth. Sterling Bank is not only providing products and services to meet youths’ needs, it has also built an e-library and promoted financial literacy among them, writes COLLINS NWEZE.
Banking is no longer exclusive to adults. Children can also engage in the exercise, saving their ‘hard-earned’ resources in preparation for a prosperous future. Doing this requires the backing of not only their parents or guardians, but financial institutions that are committed to their financial future and education.
Sterling Bank Plc has not only shown commitment in getting the youths to know more about banking through its financial literacy schemes, but has introduced array of products with attached benefits to youthful savers.
• Adeola
The bank’s Managing Director/CEO, Yemi Adeola said funding and supporting education sector remains management’s priority. “The bank’s focus on education is strategic. It is looking at all actors in the value chain. For instance, it has set up an education desk to look at the total value chain of education, from suppliers of inputs to the end users. It intends to use its expertise to contribute to the development of the sector through a variety of initiatives,” bank said.
Continuing, he said: “Sterling Bank is poised to change the poor state of education sector in the country for good. Its focus is to enrich lives by adding value through quality capacity building and development as government alone cannot solve the problem of education in Nigeria. There is a need for the intervention of the private sector in the development of education to bring the sector back to its rightful place in the country. Government is doing its best, but we are not there yet”.
The bank chief believes the private sector must come in and invest in the education sector to enable the children get quality education without having to pay so much for it adding that its intervention in the sector will help to ameliorate some of the challenges currently affecting it.
He explained that in line with this objective, the bank introduced the ‘I-Can-Save’ Reward Scheme for its new and existing customers, who have opened and maintained a balance of N50,000 and N10,000 in their accounts. The customers, he said, will be rewarded with various types of gifts like school bags among others. The product provides other freebies such as exercise books, cultural heritage books, pencils and pens to children at the account opening point.
Explaining further, he said the parents can get school fees finance facility to bridge cash crunches experienced with instant financing for school fees. The product allows parents to put their kids in school while awaiting salaries and other receivables.
“Also, schools that open (or pledge) salary accounts for their teachers this season automatically qualify their teachers for our Personal Financial Management training,” he said.
The product, according to the bank, also gives account holders opportunity to acquire household equipment like refrigerating sets, television sets among others with flexible repayment schedule spread over three months at discounted rates.
“Through the product, schools can access facilities to bridge working capital gaps, expansion purposes and asset acquisition with a maximum tenor of 60 months at interest rates lower than the industry benchmark. The funds can be used for acquisition of school buses, generators, renovation, among others,” he said.
Adeola said the bank’s commitment to education motivated it to commission e-library built for the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State. It also presented branded uniforms for street sweepers and highway managers. The banker, who was commended by the state government for the projects, noted that the e-library project was meant to reposition the state’s education sector in line with the goals of government.
“We commend Sterling Bank for the e-library project. This shows its commitment as a responsible corporate citizen of this country to support government at repositioning the education sector in the country. With this development, Sterling Bank has keyed into the landmark programmes of the Ekiti State government towards providing quality education to our children,” the state government said.
Prof. Aladejana
Provost of the College, Prof. Francisca Aladejana said with the commissioning of the e-library, the institution has fulfilled one of the major requirements for which her academic programmes had been denied or granted interim accreditation in the recent past, by both the National Commission for Colleges of Education and the National Universities Commission (NUC).
“The e-library is the first product of any partnership with any organisation in the history of the college and we must commend Sterling Bank for this. Equipped with computers of high grade and broad bandwidth of a very high capacity to connect users with international libraries, the e-library is unquestionably at par with global standards. Such a facility can rarely be found in higher institutions in the country. Sterling Bank has indeed, put smiles on the faces of all stakeholders,” she said.
Adeola assured that the lender will continue to support educational institutions with projects that impact positively on the students.
The bank chief, who was represented by its Commercial Banking Business Executive for the southwest, Ademola Adeyemi, said the e-library will provide the students and other users with unlimited access to real time global educational resources that aid learning and research, adding that the project is part of the bank’s contributions towards improving the nation’s education sector under its ‘One Education’ initiative.
“Sterling Bank is known for innovation in several areas. As it concerns Education, which has become a major focus of the Bank. We believe our business is to enrich lives in innovative ways. When you invest in people, especially young people, you are enriching their lives and they will in turn enrich the society,”he said.
Also, in fulfillment of its commitment to raise the bar in education financing and support government efforts at repositioning the education sector, Sterling Bank Plc has rolled out various offerings that would make education funding easier.
The bank has also partnered with the Lagos EKO Project, using its staff as volunteer teachers to teach various subjects. “All of these are part of our corporate social responsibility to support education. Apart from that, bank has helped to improve the look and feel of some schools and is also supporting with books, writing materials, as well as textbooks. Its books ‘My Little Money Book’ and ‘Funds’, is its way of providing a learning/teaching guide on savings, loans and other financial concepts,” he said.
He continued: “Some other landmark events instituted by the bank include building of e-library for College of Education, IkereEkiti, Ekiti State; introduction of shopping dash to appreciate the students; provision of tablets for secondary and university students with pre loaded content to aid learning and research and also rolling out of various products and services for stakeholders in the education sector.”
Financial literacy
During this year’s Financial Literacy Week observed annually under the National Money Week, the bank put in place an initiative that would see it enriching the lives of children in the country, especially in the area of financial literacy. The bank said the exercise was part of its strategic focus on education and commitment to youth empowerment and development.
It also adopted a school in Port Harcourt where a team of staff under its Volunteers Teaching Programme and other top management staff, engage the children on financial literacy.
Adeola described the Sterling Volunteers team as a collection of dedicated and resourceful professionals, noting that the existing partnership with the Eko Project, an initiative of the Lagos State Government, would help address the challenges of inadequate teachers and consequently improve students’ performance in various examinations in the state. “The Sterling volunteers’ team will use the opportunity of this year’s programme to impart useful knowledge, discipline and patriotism to the younger generation,”he said.
He recalled that as part of the activities to mark the week last year, the bank supported the “We are the Future of our Nation” (WATFON) programme, an Initiative of Edumark Consult, which attracted over 3,500 final year pupils of secondary schools.
The Sterling Bank chief executive added that the programme provided opportunity for young Nigerians to meet and interact with accomplished professionals and national leaders in the society, who have excelled in their chosen endeavours.
The bank, according to him, demonstrated its commitment to youth empowerment through initiatives such as “Raise A Child” and the sponsorship of Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek), Hour of Code and a free Boot Camp for kids and adults to spread awareness of the need for computer science education among the youth in partnership with Audax.
Sterling Bank is also supporting the ‘Raise A Child Project’, which is aimed at putting smiles on faces of millions of children in the country and giving hope to those who need it most.
The project is an online fundraising platform that enables people, who are passionate about raising money for charitable causes the means to connect with donors and raise money securely online to put smiles on millions of children across the nation this season of love.
The bank’s Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Shina Atilola, said the Raise A Child Project’ was to enable the lender to give back to the society particularly the children in continuation of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disposition especially at a time when they needed to be shown love and care.
“This is a mission dedicated to support our children through different charities across Nigeria. It goes a long way to show how much Sterling cares about the children and the extent to which the society, the general public, who are expected to make a difference by supporting the Sterling Bank through online donations care about the Nigerian child. However, Sterling Bank will match every naira donated towards the course by members of the general public,” he said.
Capacity Building
As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drive towards supporting skill acquisition among youths to prepare them for self-employment, Sterling Bank Plc has signed a partnership agreement with Field of Skills and Dreams (FSD), a vocational training institution that provides training programmes for members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Under the agreement, the bank will sponsor the training of NYSC corps members in various vocations during the course of their service year to align with its expressed purpose of enriching lives. The bank has also funded the training of about 100 NYSC members in various vocations during the pilot stage through the NYSC-Skills Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development.
It has equally equipped a 20-seat ICT laboratory of the FSD, which will provide all participants with rotational access to free ICT training.
Sterling Bank in a statement explained that the need to support the development of skills among the youth has become inevitable given the growing rate of unemployment in the country. “We believe that the steps we have taken so far would help in ameliorating the problem of unemployment in the country and support other initiatives such as the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) and the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YOU-WIN) introduced by the government to checkmate the relatively high rate of unemployment in the country,” it said.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of FBN Holdings Plc and a prime promoter of the creative arts industry in Nigeria, is supporting the visual arts festival in Enugu tagged: “Life in my City”. The bank is supporting the event driven by the quest to promote the arts and preserve cultural heritage.
“Life in My City” is a visual arts festival targeted at young Nigerian artists below the age of 35 and will provide opportunities for participants to make significant statements about their environment through art exhibitions. This festival has created another opportunity to support Nigerian youth and encourage the growth and developments of natural talents in Nigeria.
The bank is supporting the event to build capacity, enhance wealth creation for the youth and enable Nigerians to compete favourably at the international art market.
Through First@arts, FirstBank has encouraged home-grown human capacity development and enhance the creation of employment opportunities within the arts industry, thereby creating a sustainable value chain and contributing to the growth and development of an evolving art economy in Nigeria. The Bank believes that promoting the arts and preserving contemporary culture is essential for our generation and the future generations.
According to the Bank’s spokesperson, Folake Ani-Mumuney, the lender has through the years influenced the history and growth of the country through the sponsorship of several arts initiatives across diverse cultures. “We intend to promote the arts as a veritable vehicle for interconnection in our nation while we solidify our position as the leading brand in this space through our First@arts initiative,” she said.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited has again achieved an international certification on Complaints Management.
The certification was achieved on the heels of the bank’s drive to improve its management controls and processes that deal with handling customers’ complaints more effectively and efficiently.
The certification has confirmed its operational efficiency in identifying trends and the underlying root of complaints, as well as prompt resolution of complaints whilst it accentuates the bank’s commitment to delight its stakeholders through a more customer focused approach.
With the ISO 10002 certification, FirstBank has again become the first institution in Nigeria, to obtain an internationally recognised certification for complaints handling, benchmarked against global best practice.
The certification was achieved after successfully deploying the service management module of the Customer Relationship Management tool to assist with effective collation, tracking, notification and storage of customer complaints bank wide and a rigorous audit conducted by the British Standard Institute (BSI).
According to FirstBank’s Group Executive, Technology and Services, Abdullahi Ibrahim, the bank’s attainment of this feat reassures our customers of the Bank’s resilience and continuous improvements in line with global best practices. Ultimately, this elevates the FirstBank brand, underpinning its commitment towards the resolution of all customer concerns.
“This is another competitive advantage we have and it would reinforce the confidence of our stakeholders in their relationship with the Bank and this is consistent with our brand promise to always put our customers first and deliver the ultimate gold standard of value and excellence,” he stated.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said instituting effective legal framework and prosecution of fraudsters will help curtail rising cases of e-fraud in the banking sector.
Member, Bank Fraud Section at the EFCC, Ibrahim Shazali disclosed this at the weekend during a workshop organised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) for Business Editors and Correspondents in Ilorin, Kwara State.
“Nigeria, as a developing country, is particularly exposed to e-fraud because we are simultaneously dealing with underdeveloped Information Technology (IT) and legal infrastructure,” he said.
Speaking on: Investigating Electronic Transactions in Nigerian Banks: A Forensic Auditors Perspectives, Shazali stated that as at last year, it was reported that Point of Sale (PoS), Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and mobile banking were the major avenues by which e-fraud was perpetrated.
Citing statistics from the Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), he said fraud attempts increased from N485 million in 2013 to N6.2 billion last year, representing 1, 178 per cent increase.
According to him, in terms of perpetrators of fraud, Nigerian banks, like their global counterparts, experience more external than internal fraud.
“In spite of this alarming, rapidly growing figures, there are lack of a well-defined legal context for prosecuting cyber crimes and financial fraud related to electronic platforms,” EFCC representative lamented.
On the curbing of the rate of e-fraud, he called for compulsory adoption of Know Your Customer (KYC) and the bank verification number (BVN) registration for every banking customer.
Also, speaking on the topic, “E-banking and Financial Inclusion,” Head, Financial Inclusion Secretariat of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mrs. Temitope Akin-Fadeyi disclosed that the benefits of electronic payments in the country are expected to be about $900million by 2020, through reduced leakage of funds, better access to financial services and lower transaction costs.
She further noted that financial inclusion enables undeserved people and communities to have access to financial services that would enhance their economic opportunities, boost productivity in various sectors and, contribute to economic development.
She, however, hinted how e-banking could support financial inclusion, explaining that for the e-banking technologies to be successful, financial institutions must consider critical factors such as, “understanding customers’ needs, organisational flexibility, availability of resources, systems security, having multiple integrated channels, e-channel specific marketing, systems integration, support from top management, and good customer services.”
Sterling Bank Plc has assured of its readiness to support initiatives that would encourage local production and consumption of locally manufactured goods and services to support the growth of the nation’s economy.
The bank’s Executive Director, Abubakar Suleiman, gave the assurance at a briefing on the forthcoming annual Interior Designers Excellence Awards (IDEA) Conference supported by the Bank.
According to him, it had become obvious that the country could no longer sustain its huge dependence on imported goods and services and that more attention needed to be focused on encouraging local production.
He pointed out that by encouraging local production, the Bank was also promoting the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) thereby contributing to national economic growth. He disclosed that Sterling Bank decided to support IDEA because the promoters of the conference share “our commitment and passion to promote local production and consumption, especially as we come up with other initiatives to promote SMEs in the country”.
Suleiman, who emphasised that Sterling Bank has, over the years, consistently patronised local works, explained that the country at the moment does not have the resources to continue to import all the things that we need. “So from supporting SMEs to backing national economic growth, we have many reasons for supporting IDEA 2015,”he said.
The Founder and Director of IDEA, Titi Ogufere, noted that one of the major challenges facing the country today is over-dependence on imported goods and services that could be produced locally. “Instead of conserving our scarce foreign exchange and spending it on developmental programmes to enhance the local economy, we spend so much on importation and in the process stifle the local industry,”she said.
She described IDEA, an annual independent design award programme, as a foremost significant event in the year for practitioners in the architecture, interior design, real estate and construction fields.
Mrs. Ogufere disclosed that the event, which will hold in Lagos on October 30, will attract over 2000 delegates from Nigeria, Italy, United States (US) and Hong Kong. The theme of the conference is “Design and the Economy: Position Your Brand for Success”.
Clear business model or concept to be captured in the business plan, clear marketing and sales strategy, competent and experienced management, clear competitive advantage and strong financials have been identified as key remedies to the challenge of access to finance faced by SMEs.
Executive Director, South, Fidelity Bank Plc. Aku Odinkemelu, made the assertion in Enugu at the Bank’s maiden edition of the regional conference for the South-East region, themed: ‘Positioning SMEs for Growth in the Southeast Region’ recently.
Odinkemelu, who was the lead discussant on the panel discussion session on ‘Overcoming Barriers to Funding’, said SMEs in Nigeria are confronted with key challenges of low-levels of business management and finance.
She identified the key challenges to include poor managerial/entrepreneurial skills and inadequate business processes; inadequate research/market information to determine business viability; poor access to market; limited access to the export markets; inadequate record keeping.
Others are absence of proper business planning; lack of long term strategy and poor business model; low technology leverage; key man risk, etc, as well as finance, which has to do with limited options; high cost; amount and tenor.
Odinkemelu tasked SMEs to possess what she called the 5Cs of Credit- conditions, character, capacity, capital and collateral- for banks to enable them become more attractive and eligible for funding.
She said banks want to know the purpose of the loan, local economic climate and conditions within the industry and other related industries that could affect the business.
“Banks also want to see a measure of integrity and trustworthiness. Your credentials and references, credit reports, references from customers, suppliers, staff and other third parties, and other technical competence, managerial competence, financials, market size/profile, service offerings/income lines, pricing strategy, etc, money promoter must have invested in the business evidencing his commitment, and secondary repayment source,” she said.
Earlier in his remarks, the MD & CEO, Fidelity Bank Plc., Nnamdi Okonkwo, said the theme of the conference was at the heart of the bank’s passion and commitment to building entrepreneurs in the Southeast region of Nigeria.
“Whilst we have always supported small businesses, our renewed focus on the SME segment is driven by the increasing role of SMEs as critical agents of economic development and transformation in Nigeria,” he said.
“In line with this, we created a dedicated SME Banking Division (Fidelity Managed SMEs), which focuses on providing solutions to the challenges faced by SMEs through a multifaceted approach, one of which is our flagship SME-focused radio programme (the Fidelity SME Forum), a major component of the business advisory and business management capacity building end of our business.
