The nationwide effort by Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of the Stanbic IBTC Holdings plc, to help build a vibrant small and medium scale enterprises sector in Nigeria was taken to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recently where over 500 participants converged at the Ibadan Civic Centre for the one-day capacity building workshop.
A similar session held in Lagos on February 11-12, while others are planned for Port Harcourt, Aba, Abuja and Kano, among other cities spread across the six geo-political zones in the country.
At the workshop, the bank reiterated that the key objective of the workshop is to equip its clients operating in the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) sub-sector with financial, marketing and management skills that they can readily deploy to nurture and grow their businesses.
“The SME sector is pivotal to the economic growth and development of any nation and Nigeria is no exception, which is why the seminar was conceived to avail SME operators exposure to modern and innovative marketing, financial and management skills that are useful to their businesses and which will help them to attract the necessary funding for growth,” Obinnia Abajue, executive director, personal and business banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, said.
Abajue, who was represented by Tayo Adediran, regional head, SME, Stanbic IBTC Bank, said Stanbic IBTC Bank, backed by the rich heritage and know-how of the Standard Bank Group, was committed to building a strong SME base in Nigeria “and one of the ways it hopes to achieve this is by empowering operators with the right business skills and adequate funding.
“Stanbic IBTC Bank has a rich pedigree of building capacity for SMEs and providing much-needed support in terms of funding and skills acquisition because we understand the important linkages provided by SMEs to industries and employment generation. This seminar is one of several ways the bank continues to build capacity in the SME sector.”
Speaking further on the seminar and the expertise of Stanbic IBTC, Abajue said the course content and the resource persons, who are highly skilled and experienced, had been carefully chosen to ensure participants derive maximum benefits from the seminar. “We have streamlined the seminar course content to include essential topics such as Building Financial Records, Achieving Success in Marketing, Business Planning, and People Management, among others. The seminar is a unique offering by Stanbic IBTC to develop and sharpen participants’ business skills,” Abajue said.
