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Tag: Sterling Bank

  • Sterling Bank, SMEDAN begin N5b loan scheme with Databanc

    Sterling Bank, SMEDAN begin N5b loan scheme with Databanc

    Sterling Bank, and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), have launched a groundbreaking platform called Databanc.

    The platform will serve as a single source of truth for data on businesses in Nigeria to guide personalized interventions and support from decision makers who serve the MSME ecosystem. The platform will provide insights which will be utilized by SMEDAN to deliver its mandate on policy formulation, delivery of intervention programmes and other initiatives, including financing, that will support the growth of small businesses in Nigeria.

    This platform will also provide unique identification for small businesses and their promoters as well as their business areas/sectors. This platform and the

    Sterling/SMEDAN N5 billion single digit loan program are some of the avenues

    through which Sterling Bank is working with SMEDAN to jointly grow the Nigerian economy by supporting the growth and expansion of small businesses.

    Speaking at the launch of the platform, Executive Director of Commercial and

    Institutional Banking at Sterling Bank, Tunde Adeola, announced the platform and fund was a materialization of Sterling Bank’s commitment towards growing the real sector of the nation’s economy.

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    Adeola said “We are delighted to bolster the backbone of our economy with

    SMEDAN. This initial fund of N5 billion marks just the beginning of what has been and will continue to be a mainstay of our approach to funding businesses to grow at scale, and become the preferred financial partner for businesses, no matter their scale.”

    The Executive Director said that over 20,000 SMEs have enrolled on the Databanc platform, with over 80 beneficiaries of the single-digit loan program and further disbursements ongoing. He encouraged all MSMEs in the country to enrol on the platform.

    SMEDAN’s Director-General, Mr. Charles Odii, represented by the Director of

    Agribusiness Development and Access to Finance, Levi Anyikwa, highlighted the programme’s alignment with SMEDAN’s mission to democratize credit access for nano and micro-enterprises. Anyikwa affirmed that “access to finance remains a significant hurdle for SMEs, and we are committed to removing that barrier.”

    Anyikwa emphasized the November 2022 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SMEDAN and Sterling Bank as a pivotal step towards digitalizing and streamlining loan processes.

    Bolanle Tyson, Head of SME Digital Products at Sterling Bank, emphasized Sterling Bank’s strategic focus on critical sectors encapsulated in the HEART of Sterling forward strategy: Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Transportation.

    Tyson outlined the innovative support package, including access to capital at

    single-digit interest rates, alongside essential resources such as capacity building, marketing support, and infrastructure development. “We are leveraging data to empower SMEs like never before,” she added.

    “Our commitment to SMEs is steadfast,” Tyson asserted. “We recognize their pivotal role in driving Nigeria’s GDP and employment. This partnership with SMEDAN underscores our shared dedication to their success.”

    The launch of the Databanc platform chronicles another major milestone in the

    ongoing strategic partnership between Sterling Bank and SMEDAN, dating back to June 2023 when both entities signed a partnership to create Nigeria’s largest SME database, which was followed closely in November 2023 with the signing of the memorandum for the N5 billion loan portfolio.

  • Sterling Bank, others partner on e-mobility innovations

    Sterling Bank, others partner on e-mobility innovations

    Sterling Bank Limited partnered GFA Technologies (GetFundedAfrica), Microsoft, The Garage, and Oando Clean Energy to host the final pitch of the e-Mobility Innovation Hackathon.

    Themed, “Accelerating Nigerian Talent, Building out Nigeria’s e-Mobility Ecosystem,” the event signalled a pivotal moment in advancing electric vehicle (EV) technology in Nigeria.

    Head, Mobility & Projects, Renewable Energy, Sterling Bank, Akin Akingbogun, said the bank remains committed to fostering sustainable energy solutions in the transport sector.

    He said the bank’s participation underscored its dedication to driving the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in Nigeria.

    “We believe in promoting innovation and sustainability in transportation, and platforms like the hackathon enable us to explore ground-breaking ideas aligned with our vision,” Akingbogun said.

    In response to recent developments such as the removal of fuel subsidies, Sterling Bank introduced the Qoray brand and innovative financing solutions to support the local production of EVs and boats.

    Organized by GFA Technologies (GetFundedAfrica) in collaboration with Microsoft, and generously supported by Sterling Bank and Oando Clean Energy Ltd, the e-Mobility Innovation Hackathon empowers start-ups and entrepreneurs with essential skills, resources, and networking opportunities.

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    The hackathon offers numerous benefits, including access to corporate partnerships, market expansion opportunities, investor connections, funding avenues, and capacity building in critical business areas.

    Key objectives of the hackathon include identifying innovative solutions in energy management systems, software development, charging infrastructure, autonomous driving technology, vehicle-to-grid technology, battery technology, and more from entrepreneurs across Nigeria.

    At the final pitch event, a panel of judges and experts awarded Trekk Scooters the top prize of N3 million, with Helgg securing second place and Celloop coming in third.

    The judging panel featured Samuel Ahanor, Chief Executive  Officer, Magnus Samuel Limited; Temitope Edun, Vice President, Projects & Infrastructure, Oando Clean Energy; Olaniji Aisida, Director, Government Relations and Business Development, NGTSL; Aramide Abe, Global Lead, Jobs & Entrepreneurship, AAAP; Edi Alaba, Account Director, Energy & Manufacturing, Microsoft; Ashley Emmanuel, Co-Founder, Semi-Colon; Akin Akingbogun, and Oluwatoyin Emmanuel, Investment Director, Novastar Ventures.

    Akingbogun noted that the collaborative effort spotlighted Sterling Bank and its partners’ dedication to driving innovation and sustainability in Nigeria’s transportation sector.

  • Sterling Bank, EAS boost sustainable export for SMEs

    Sterling Bank, EAS boost sustainable export for SMEs

    Sterling Bank Limited has partnered with Export and Sell Nigeria Limited (EAS) to propel small and medium-scale enterprise (SME) operators into the realm of scaleable exports.

    The collaboration unfolded through an intensive four-day capacity-building boot camp, attracting an impressive turnout of over 130 export ready businesses participants.

    Group Head of Agric and Solid Minerals Finance at Sterling Bank, Dr. Olushola Obikanye underlined the imperative for capacity building, citing three pivotal factors crucial for the flourishing of the agricultural sector in Nigeria to flourish.

    “Access to information, markets, and finance are fundamental,” he asserted, emphasizing that “without addressing the first two, financial intermediation remains futile.”

    Obikanye underscored Nigeria’s need to ensure that domestically produced goods secure access to well-structured markets primed for their uptake, affirming the bank’s unwavering commitment to collaborative endeavours aimed at co-creating products and devising innovative solutions to bolster the private sector’s vitality within the agricultural domain.

    He remarked, “Given agriculture’s significant GDP contribution, SMEs represent the most viable intervention avenue in the sector, transcending traditional industry players.”

    In a similar vein, Akporee Idenedo, Head of the Commercial Banking Division at Sterling Bank, elucidated the bank’s broader vision, highlighting its aspiration to foster wealth creation and enrich livelihoods through proactive initiatives.

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    “We strive to empower entrepreneurs beyond mere financial transactions,” he articulated, noting that “by nurturing activities geared towards enhancing exports, we catalyse entrepreneurial empowerment.”

    Idenedo further elaborated, “Our conviction lies in the belief that nurturing entrepreneurship leads to wealth generation, and our export conference serves as a pivotal avenue to realise this vision. Given agriculture’s intrinsic link to exports, this platform underscores our commitment to empowering lives, generating wealth, and contributing to Nigeria’s socio-economic advancement.”

    Bolanle Tyson, Head of SME Products at Sterling Bank, shed light on the boot camp session as a follow-up to the inaugural “Export to Wealth” conference, a collaborative effort between the bank and EAS.

    She revealed that the extensive participation in the event exemplifies the burgeoning interest among businesses eager to tap into export opportunities, highlighting the meticulous review of participants’ products to ensure compliance with export and import standards.

  • Sterling Bank lists benefits of its SWIFT GPI

    Sterling Bank Plc is now  on SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (GPI).

    In a statement, the bank said SWIFT GPI has improved the customer experience by increasing the speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking of cross-border payments.

    The bank’s Executive Director, Corporate and Investment Banking, Yemi Odubiyi said the introduction of SWIFT GPI has transformed cross border payments for customers.

    ‘’As a key player committed to the digital transformation of the financial sector, the bank has delivered the solution to its customers.

    ‘’Sterling is the first bank in Nigeria and West Africa to achieve SWIFT GPI implementation, as this was driven by our commitment to provide faster, transparent and traceable international payments,’’ Ogunbiyi said.

    He added that other benefits of SWIFT GPI include receiving confirmation message when beneficiary has been paid, ensuring remittance data is unchanged when payment arrives at the destination bank, stop and recall – Allowing payment messages to be immediately stopped in case of fraud or error, no matter where they are in the GPI transaction chain.

    About 40 per cent of SWIFT GPI payments are credited to end-beneficiaries within five minutes, 50 per cent are credited within 30 minutes, and almost 100 per cent within 24 hours.

     

     

  • Sterling Bank holds summit on $1tr agribusiness

    POLICY makers, international financial institutions, value chain players and development agencies  will be part of the second Sterling Bank Agriculture Summit Africa billed for September 5 and 6 in Abuja.

    The summit with the theme “Agriculture – Your Piece of The $1tr Economy,” is geared toward attainment of the $1trillion Africa agribusiness economy dream of the World Bank by 2030.

    Executive Director, Corporate and Investment Banking, Yemi Odubiyi, said the bank and others would reposition Nigeria through agriculture to achieve food security in the continent.

    He said: “Food security is a major threat in Nigeria. We will not be able to stabilise this country until we solve the issue of food security, which we are at the forefront.

    ‘’We are trying to address issue of food security and job creation in the country.

    ‘’We believe that supporting the initiative of the current administration, we will be able to solve challenges of food security.

    ”About 10 per cent of our loans are on agriculture because the sector is a very important area for us.

    Read Also: Sterling Bank holds agric summit Sept. 5

    “We are working with other stakeholders for us to achieve the $1 trillion target of the World Bank by bringing back the good old days of agriculture boom where cocoa and other cash crops were faring well in the country,” he said.

    Odubiyi said that during the summit, the bank would launch the Digital Stakeholders Platform to address wastages, post-harvest losses and other areas to boost the sector.

    The Group Head, Agric Finance and Solid Minerals of the bank, Bukola Awosanya, said agriculture has been one of the bank’s focal areas, adding that the summit would cover the entire African continent, compared to last year, which was limited to Nigeria.

    She said the bank has been in the business of promoting agriculture in the last nine years, noting that it was the first commercial bank involved in the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) having taken agriculture to be an important sector in the country.

  • Sterling Bank holds agric summit Sept. 5

    Sterling Bank is to hold the Agriculture Summit Africa in Abuja on September 5 and 6.

    The international event themed “Agriculture – Your piece of the trillion-dollar economy”- seeks the actualisation of the $1 trillion African agribusiness economy dream by 2030.

    More than 50 percent of the world’s fertile and unused land estimated at 450 million hectares is in Africa.

    Group Head, Agric Finance and Solid Minerals, Sterling Bank, Bukola Awosanya, said: ‘’Agriculture productivity in Africa is low and a source of concern in the sector that account for 60 per cent of the continent’s labour force and 75 per cent of its domestic trade. And the creation of an African market with over 1.2 billion people through the Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) treaty is not without possible adverse impact on the sector’s growth, which calls for a pan-African agriculture summit.

    “Sterling Bank has been at the forefront of Nigeria’s agricultural transformation agenda which seeks commercialisation at scale nationwide through focus on value chains where the country has comparative advantage.

    ‘’This market-led transformation driven by strategic partnerships is stimulating investment, creating new jobs, wealth and food security. It is imperative that this same model is adopted across the 54 countries that now make up the single African market to improve productivity, guarantee food security and ensure a future of shared prosperity for all Africans.’’

    She added that the summit would foster an integrated approach to agricultural value chain transformation on the continent while also facilitating intra-African trade. It will also unveil agricultural trends, innovations and opportunities for private and public-sector investment and participation in Africa.

    Last year, Sterling Bank brought together smallholder farmers, input suppliers, agro processing entrepreneurs, development finance agencies, policy makers and captains of industry through a technical workshop on the agriculture value chain in Abuja.

    The workshop, which focused on co-creating a sustainable economy through rural agricultural enterprise, was chaired by former Minister of Agriculture Mr Audu Ogbeh.

  • Fed Govt, Sterling Bank, others partner on renewable energy

    The Federal Government, Sterling Bank and Virtus Energy Solutions Limited are partnering to enhance power production for small businesses.

    Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Rural Electrification Agency, Damilola Ogunbiyi, said the project will provide electricity access to over 80,000 shops across 16 economic clusters, empower over 340,000 micro, small and medium size enterprises, create over 2,500 jobs while serving over 18 million Nigerians.

    “This is a significant milestone in the financing of the Energizing Economies Initiative. Since the deployment of off grid electricity solutions at various markets across the country, we are already witnessing positive environmental and economic impacts. This is the sort of intervention we look forward to scaling across Nigeria with support from financial institutions,” he said.

    Ogunbiyi said the Federal government through the Rural Electrification Agency, is implementing the Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI) which supports the rapid deployment of off grid electricity solutions to provide clean, safe, affordable and reliable electricity to economic clusters (e.g., market places, shopping centres, industrial facilities) through private sector developers.

    The REA worked in collaboration with the USAID sponsored programme, Power Africa. Power Africa provides technical advisory support to this initiative, which is already transforming businesses in Sabon Gari market, Ariara market, Sura shopping complex and other economic clusters with sustainable, clean and affordable power supply by increasing economic activities, spurring business growth, fostering job creation and enhancing the business experience.

    “Technical advisory is a key pillar of assistance Power Africa provides to Nigeria’s power sector. We are focused on ensuring initiatives like the Energizing Economies are designed and implemented with regulatory, legal, financial, transactional and project management support,” said the USAID/Nigeria Mission Director, Stephen Haykin.

    The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as part of its wider mandate towards ensuring economic development, productivity, macro-economic stability and economic diversification has shown commitment towards ensuring the successful implementation of the EEI.

    On its part, Sterling Bank has been an industry leader in financing off-grid energy solutions through its multi-pronged approach aimed at ensuring the delivery of projects that provide electricity to communities and businesses and has extended a five  year facility worth N446 million  to Virtus for the deployment of distributed energy solutions across selected economic clusters in Nigeria.

  • Sterling Bank seeks energy sector reform

    Sterling Bank Plc has supported the 4th Nigeria Energy Forum with theme: “Upscaling Clean Energy for Sustainable Development” as part of its commitment to the HEART of Sterling initiative to invest in five key sectors of the economy namely: Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation.

    Head of Renewable Energy Unit at Sterling Bank, Adesola Alli, who spoke as a panelist at the event, noted that global industry overview of renewable energy, which stood at $1.4 trillion is expected to grow to a projected value of $2.5 trillion by 2025. She added that about $531 billion investment in energy supply and technology is required yearly between now and 2050.

    She listed some of the industry’s major challenges as supply and demand gap, access to finance and inadequate investment as well as trust and product standardisation.

    Alli said there is a need to create conditions for investment through policy and institutional reforms as well as to develop plans and targets for renewable energy while also ensuring that laws supporting investment in low-carbon energy are enacted.

    She also called for the creation of favourable conditions for investment, improvement in project developers’ capacity to develop bankable projects, strengthening of the financial sector’s capacity to invest in the industry and to build technical and engineering capacity.

    Alli said international support should focus on identifying and targeting critical sectors such as project bankability, equipment financing, feasibility studies and project assessment, adding that some public goods must be provided through public funding.

    She acalled for the strengthening of awareness and capacity within industry as imperative for the adoption of low-carbon energy, noting that putting the right policies in place is crucial to attracting investment into the sector.

  • Sterling Bank seeks energy sector reform

    Sterling Bank Plc has called for reform of the energy sector at the  fourth Nigeria Energy Forum themed Upscaling Clean Energy for Sustainable Development supported by the lender.

    The project is  part of its commitment to the HEART of Sterling initiative to invest in five key sectors of the Nigerian economy namely Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation.

    Speaking as a panelist at the event, Adesola Alli, Head of Renewable Energy Unit at Sterling Bank, noted that global industry overview of renewable energy which stood at $1.4 trillion is expected to grow to a projected value of $2.5 trillion by 2025. She added that about $531 billion investment in energy supply and technology is required yearly between now and 2050.

    She listed some of the industry’s major challenges as supply and demand gap, access to finance and inadequate investment as well as trust and product standardisation.

    Alli said there is a need to create conditions for investment through policy and institutional reforms as well as to develop plans and targets for renewable energy while also ensuring that laws supporting investment in low-carbon energy are enacted.

     

     

     

  • Shareholders commend Sterling Bank’s sustained growth

    Shareholders of Sterling Bank Plc have commended the board and management of the bank for sustaining improved performance over the years.

    At the annual general meeting yesterday in Lagos, shareholders said the improvements across the businesses of the bank have further reinforced their confidence in the board and management and the future of the bank.

    National Coordinator, Shareholders United Front (SUF), Mr. Gbenga Idowu, said the results of the bank in 2018 reflected successful and seamless management transition.

    According to him, the results clearly showed that the new Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman has the ability to provide good leadership for the executive management of the bank since April 2018 when he took over from Mr. Yemi Adeola.

    Key extracts of the audited report and accounts of the bank for the year ended December 31, 2018 showed that profit after tax rose to N9.2 billion in 2018 as against N8 billion in 2017. Gross earnings had increased by 14 per cent from N133.4 billion to N152.2 billion.

    The report showed that in line with the bank’s commitment to sectors that will create jobs, improve living standards and bring about economic growth for the country, Sterling Bank increased its financing efforts in the agriculture sector which accounted for about 10 per cent of its loan book. The bank also maintained a healthy capital and liquidity position at 13.3 per cent and 42.2 per cent respectively on account of additional tier 2 capital injection.

    Former President, Nigeria Shareholders’ Solidarity Association (NSSA), Chief Timothy Adesiyan said the performance of the bank is highly commendable in view of the massive improvement in most of the indices, especially in gross earnings, net interest income, liquidity ratio and profit after tax.

    He noted that even though the bank is not paying any dividend to shareholders for the year, shareholders are happy with the appreciation in share price and the prospect of higher dividends in future.

    Adesiyan also commended the board and executive management of the bank, noting that the good results underscored good corporate governance practice which makes the bank a dependable and solid bank.

    Chairman, Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Asue Ighodalo said the 2018 financial results reflected an even stronger business performance despite the impact of an ailing operating environment.

    He noted that the bank closed the year with an improved balance sheet position as total assets grew steadily by about 2.9 per cent to N1.1 trillion, thereby maintaining the over one trillion Naira mark achieved in the previous year.

    “We continued to sustain operational efficiencies and our focus in growing the bank’s retail franchise. This resulted in an improved deposit base and moderate growth in our loan book, specifically riding on the 108.3 percent growth in retail and consumer loans delivered mainly by SPECTA – Nigeria’s fastest digital lending platform,” Ighodalo said.

    He added that the bank was able to maintain the cost of funds at 7.4 per cent despite high-interest environment which persisted for a significant part of the year.

    On the future prospect of the bank, Ighodalo remarked that the Nigerian business environment for 2019 would remain a story of two halves.