By Martin Ekpeke
One of Nigeria’s commercial banks, Fidelity yesterday said the essence of the Fidelity Bank SME Funding Connect is to expand the frontiers of SME funding and bridge the seeming gap between entrepreneurs in Nigeria and fund providers.
Tagged ‘Entrepreneurs meet Capital’ and scheduled to start in Lagos on the 7th of August, 2019, the bank said the
Giving a remark at the press conference, which was held in Lagos at the bank’s head office, the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, noted that, as an SME friendly bank, the SME Funding Connect is part of its efforts to directly give financial access to the SMEs in Nigeria, which of the office of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) puts at 40 million.
Okonkwo, who was represented by Ms. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, explained that with 40 million SMEs in Nigeria, it is just reasonable for Fidelity Bank to address one of their challenges, which is funding.
The challenges of the SMEs, which currently contribute 80 percent to Nigeria’s employment creation, according to her are funding, multiple taxations and lack of basic infrastructure. “As an SME friendly bank, we are aware that the major challenge of SMEs in Nigeria is funding. This is what we want to address with the Fidelity Bank SME Connect,” she affirmed.
Meanwhile, in an overview of the initiative, Divisional Head, Managed SMEs, Fidelity Bank Plc., Osaigbovo Omorogbe, stated that the Fidelity SME Connect provides an opportunity for cheap funding for SMEs, adding that it is cheaper than what the banks offer.
He said the one-day funding connect is a platform for sharing of ideas and networking between entrepreneurs and funders. “We hope to use the opportunity to connect participating existing and growing businesses with local and international fund providers,” he said.
Specifically, sectors of interest include manufacturing, technology, entertainment, healthcare, agriculture and other value chain.
The one-day event is divided into segments. They are capacity building, where targeted focus panelist drawn from a retinue of model entrepreneurs will share their experiences on how they positioned their business to attract funding. SMEs fund providers will also share their insights on what they look out for in MSMEs.
Another segment will be on grants competition, where a pitch style competition among the SMEs will take place and N4million available to the finalist.
Asked if the event is taking care of only Lagos, Omoregbe responded that the train is starting in Lagos and will make a stop in key policy/commercial hubs across the country. The other hubs the train will stop simultaneously in the course of this year and 2020 are Port Harcourt, Enugu, Aba, Ibadan and Kano.