|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
SunTrust bank, a privately held commercial bank licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria under the BOFIA has launched its Women On Wheels (WOW) product, an asset finance product targeted at female commercial car owners from the age of 18-55yrs.
The product was launched to support women across Nigeria in owning their own fleet of commercial vehicles.
Speaking during the launch of the product at SunTrust bank in Lagos, Halima Buba, managing director, SunTrust bank explained that ‘WOW’ idea came up as its SME banking group was looking for creative ways to ease lending to women.
Buba assured that all required to access the facility is to be a licensed female driver, registered with Uber and or Bolt, and a proforma invoice of any car of their choice, adding that the bank hopes to take this further by partnering with auto dealers for brand new cars soon.
She disclosed that a total of 100 cars would be launched for the month of April in Lagos, then in Abuja and Port Harcourt, respectively.
She explained that the beneficiaries will make daily deposits into their accounts so the repayment at the end of the month will be very easy, adding that the asset is for 24months and at a very low-interest rate.
“I have passion for women and because of my position as a woman and the need to see women develop and grow in their various fields, myself and my SME team came up with this product and we launched it. We have a lot of programmes for women in SME and agriculture,” Buba said.
Read Also: NITDA initiatives supports women and youth – DG NITDA
Also speaking during the launch of the product, Oluwadamilola Oladoke, ambassador for Women On Wheels and a beneficiary of the new product said she noticed that a lot of women had challenges getting a car to run their businesses, so she approached SunTrust bank to support these women with cars and they accepted the idea.
“Some people have been working with Bolt and got blocked because they were not working for long. I feel the pain of women because we have widows in our association’s; Women on Wheels Association and Women Empowerment Network.
“The bank was particular about us also empowering another woman after being empowered. We have been working on this for over two months now. The bank has given us a 15 percent interest rate, which is very convenient. We couldn’t have asked for better support than this,” Oladoke said.
She called on women across Nigeria to become a change agent and think out of the box, striving to be the best at what they do, adding that “With a platform like SunTrust Bank, we have no excuse. Women who don’t know how to drive should go and learn how to drive,” she said.
“WOW” is basically designed for women who are into the transport business such as Uber, Bolt, etc. Ownership and insurance will be in the name of the Bank until the final rental is to the Bank paid by the customer.
SunTrust bank focuses its lending activities on SME finance, retail/consumer banking, and Medium to large corporate finance and explores other specialized development and Infrastructure financing activities.
