FCMB OFFERS FREE TRAINING FOR SME CUSTOMERS

First City Monument Bank (FCMB), a leading financial institution has organised another programme in a series of free training interventions in its impact planning project for small and medium business owners and operators. This is in pursuit of the lender’s resolve to support and nurture small and medium enterprises to achieve growth and stability in business.

An integral aspect of the Bank’s agenda towards the nation’s economic development, the lender re-assured its customers it would sustain the tempo of support to existing and upcoming SMEs through increased lending, capacity building, free advisory, value-added products, as well as providing them services capable of increasing overall performance in business. At the event which recently held in Lagos tagged “Business Empowerment & Sustainability Training for SME Customers”, the Bank focused on budgeting, cost and budget management. Facilitators also took participants through the intricacies of raising capital for business and getting businesses ready for loans as well as preparing them for other investors’ invitation in partnership.

Addressing the participating SME customers of the Bank, Divisional Head, Corporate Services, FCMB, Felicia Obozuwa, said the bank recognised the role of entrepreneurs in the society and their capacity in driving growth and sustaining the economy. She added, that, “This is one of the ways we support the growth of our SME customers. We are conscious of the fact that many small businesses could have the dedication to succeed, but lack adequate training and experience to make the business thrive. This gap is capable of hindering operation and thereby limiting the achievement of targeted results.

Business acumen and day to day operational skills are very essential for business owners particularly when venturing into new or sustaining already existing businesses. Our training programmes are specially packaged for the SMEs to establish solid foundations for growth, learn new skills, better serve their customers, and stay relevant to their niche,” she stated. First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has a number of special offerings designed for its customers with a lot of benefits to the SMEs segment of the Business community.

Among them is the e-invoicing platform a unique solution, designed to help businesses monitor and control their cash management, especially as it affects payments, receivables, reconciliation and other financial transactions, through the internet and other mobile channels among others.

The Bank also offers free banking transactions for a period of three months for new-to-FCMB SME customers. This was discovered to be one of the strategies of the Bank towards continuous building of bridges between SMEs and investors, national and international developmental agencies to facilitate and unlock opportunities for SMEs. Participants expressed their immense gratitude to the Bank for providing such a very valuable platform without charges, appealing to FCMB Training School to consider making the periodic free training for SMEs, a full blown coaching programme to accommodate other small and medium scale business operators in Nigeria, even if they are not FCMB customers.

This request is predicated on the priceless value it has been adding to their businesses. Promising to focus more on applying the knowledge gained from the budgeting and forecasting session, some participants requested FCMB to establish a real time common platform where all SME owners and operators can interact with one another and be able to connect all registered SMEs in Nigeria.

The Head, Training Academy of FCMB, Mr. Sola Oyegbade told participants that the Academy was well-positioned to offer excellent learning solutions with high impact and positive results on businesses, not just for the Bank’s workforce but others who desire its services, having been certified and granted full accreditation status by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). Oyegbade said, ”we have distinguished ourselves as a viable learning organization and we are committed to a culture of continuous training and professionalism in a sustainable manner”. On his part, Regional Head, Lagos of FCMB, Mr. Oliver Opara explained that the Bank is aware SMEs play critical roles in the growth of the nation’s economy and act as agents of growth. That the capacity building programme has been structured to provide opportunities to transform the lender’s commitment to SMEs into a sustainable and progressive one.

”We understand that a number of factors combine to determine the success or failure of SMEs. We will continue to support our customers operating in the SMEs segment to overcome the challenges they usually face. We want to be part of their success story”, he assured.

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