At present, there are over 86,000 banking agents across 772 out of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, a demonstration of FirstBank’s commitment to deepening financial inclusion and ensuring the unbanked are adequately catered for. In an interview with BusinessDay, Adesola Adeduntan, FirstBank’s CEO, noted that over N9.6 trillion had been processed through the bank’s agent network.
As
he explained, FirstMonie agents have supported several government and
NGOs’ cash transfers to the poorest of the poor in the rural areas.
Additionally, selected FirstMonie agents in the rural communities are
equipped with BVN enrolment devices; as such they are able to enrol and
open accounts for rural dwellers that hitherto may not have had the
opportunity to be included in the formal financial services system.
The
bank’s commitment to providing access to finance for Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) was also highlighted by the CEO, who hinged this on
“their potential to impact the economy”.
He
discussed the bank’s value adding solutions that have created a
functional ecosystem for SMEs to thrive. The ecosystem includes
propositions such as connection of the SMEs to talents and
resources/cutting edge tools, access to business finance and market,
capacity building opportunities and policy advocacy.
These
are all aggregated on its SMEConnect platform as value adding products
and services for easy access and at rates (prices) that are competitive
and mostly discounted. The SMEConnect is a digital platform that allows
the SMEs connect to FirstBank’s offerings from the comfort of their
locations anywhere in the world.
This, according to Adeduntan, has been well received by the SME community as we engage across the country.
BusinessDay
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