First Bank of Nigeria Limited, has disclosed that it loaned out over 10 billion Naira to support educational institutions in Nigeria last year.
The premier and leading financial services provider said it carried out the loan service through its FirstEdu product, an educational solution created to enhance the educational facilities in schools with a view to improving the quality of education across the country.
According to Chuma Ezirim, Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products at First Bank of Nigeria Limited, FirstEdu is the right tool to boost various tiers of education in Nigeria; elementary, secondary and tertiary to the level they desire. We are pleased to have already disbursed over N10 billion loans to schools in one year and we would continue to support growth in this key sector of our economy,” he announced.
Ezirim added that FirstBank identifies with the impact of the education sector on the socio-economic activities of the country and importantly the lives of everyone, stressing that the bank remained committed to supporting schools as education is the core and root factor at enabling the growth of our economy.
FirstEdu loan is targeted at private Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools to assist the schools in achieving their desired growth in the medium and long-term. The product provides funding to replace old furniture and equipment, pay staff salaries, purchase brand new or fairly-used buses as well as refurbish dilapidated buildings and classroom blocks. With this product, school owners/proprietors can stay ahead to make learning easy and conducive for students.
The product enables the schools to access facilities with no tangible collateral, apart from domiciliation of school fees account with the Bank.
On the other hand, FirstEdu portal is a modular and robust web-based enterprise portal that enables Tertiary educational institutions manage academic, administrative, professional, logistics and payment challenges.
The product features and benefits include; e-Learning, virtual library and facilitation of exchange programmes with foreign educational institutions; academic & student events/time-table/calendar management; school fees payment via the internet; online information and result checking; interactive community forum between students and teachers. It also affords applicants the opportunity of enrolling from the comfort of their homes or any location around the world; no licensing, installation and maintenance cost and plugs avenues for revenue leakages amongst others.
