First Bank, Lafarge Assure customers of support

First Bank Plc and Lafarge Africa have reaffirmed their commitment to continue to support their customers who are into distribution of Lafarge cement in SouthWest to remain in business, and continue to thrive amid various challenges affecting businesses.

They spoke at a meeting tagged, “Key Distributors’ Forum” in Abeokuta, Ogun State, which was attended by major cement distributors from the six states of the SouthWest region.

Part of the financial solutions First Bank said it was offering the customers included a loan facility tagged Temporary Over Draft, a short term credit facility designed to augment the working capital of distributors.

Speaking at the event, the Group Executive, Transaction Banking Division, First Bank Nigeria Plc, Olaitan Martins, said the forum was not only to help the distributors sustain their business, but also to ensure availability of cement in the Nigerian building industry.

Martins, who was represented by Group Head of First Bank, Mobolade Ojeahere, said the forum would help the distributors identify the various challenges in the industry and help them make good choices that would improve their businesses.

Martins said, “The purpose of this event is get us to bring distributors closer together in a forum where we will engage, discuss some of the challenges we are seeing in the environment in general, how we can work closer with them and help them navigate through some of the challenges we are seeing.”

The Customer Relations Manager at Lafarge, Augustine Sobola, in her remarks assured that the company would keep supporting cement distributors to help them stay afloat in their businesses.

-Punch