Fidelity Lifts 600,000 SME’s, Supports Women

By Fola James

Fidelity Bank Plc has recognized women and SMEs as critical agents in Nigeria’s advancement toward economic prosperity, the managing director of the bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo said.

As a commitment to this, the bank says it has lifted over 600,000 entrepreneurs in the last few years by providing low interest credit facilities.

The foremost deposit money bank, DMBs recently beat 25 other banks in the country to emerge Bank of the Year in the Silverbird Man of the Year awards, for its consistent support for small and medium businesses in Nigeria.

“Indeed, our long-running support for the growth and development of small businesses in Nigeria stems from our recognition of SMEs as critical agents of economic development and transformation in Nigeria and the world at large, Okonkwo said during the CEO’s hangout event  organised by the bank as a mentoring and networking engagement with women entrepreneurs, in celebration of the 2020 International Women’s Day.

The Fidelity Bank’s boss spoke on the topic ‘Talking points for MD & CEO on funding for women-owned businesses.’

He explained that SMES will find it difficult to achieve full potentials as long as access to adequate finance remains a problem.

“While MSMEs have continued to help us to do this through greater utilisation of raw materials, employment generation, linkages with bigger industries, etc, they, however, continue to be held back from reaching their full potential by a number of internal and external challenges which include poor access to funding, and poor infrastructure among others,” he said

According to him, the SME’s friendly bank has filled this gap by making sure that serious business owners are allowed access to funds that can help expand their businesses.

Facing “This reality and the need to tackle it headlong has led us to deepen attention on the segment in recent years and institute enduring structures to help the segment build all-round capacity at little or no cost to them,” he said.

This has paid off, he said because “Overall, as proof of our commitment, our MSME customer footprint as at date, is in excess of 600,000 customers across several sectors and the various geographical regions of the country.”