First Bank of Nigeria Limited has disbursed about N46 billion to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in one year according to Gbenga Shobo, executive director, retail banking South, has said.
The bank has done this and is still doing more to address the funding challenge faced by the SME sector in the country.
Shobo acknowledged that the major problems of SMEs are access to finance, but stressed that banks need to understanding the SMEs better and create products that will be useful to them.
He disclosed that the capacity building which the bank started last year has been very useful and very successful, adding that the Bank has engaged SMEs across the country on capacity building specifically, SMEs in Lagos, Aba, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Ibadan among others.
The bank had its maiden SME national conference in Lagos last year where over 500 SME participants from various sector of the economy were in attendance.
“We have held the SME conference in Aba, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Ibadan. So we are now moving hinterland to gather more SMEs to give them capacity building. What we do in the regional conferences is capacity building. We are teaching them what they need to do in their business, so that when you get to the bank, they will get money, and that makes them bankable” he said in an interview with journalist in Lagos.
“When you go to any First bank, you will get a manager that can talk to you about your SME business. We also have products keyed specifically to the SME, access to finance and more. We are now going to start working with the traders, so that they will start using their shops, stocks as securities. We are collaborating with an online e-commerce site. We allow all our SME customers to go to the websites and sell their goods. This gives their goods more visibility and people can see and buy”, he said.
According to him, the bank has strong focus in education sector and has given out some loans to primary, secondary and higher institutions.
Information Technology (IT) is another key sector that the bank plans to focus on in its SME programme.
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