Bank restates commitment to building capacity of SMES

FIRST City Monument Bank ( FCMB), has restated its commitment to building the capacity of small businesses just as it emerged the Best SME Bank in Africa and Best SME Bank in Nigeria at the Asian Banker Middle East and Africa Regional Awards held recently.

The bank beat all other Nigerian and African banks to win national and continental honours. It emerged as Best SME Bank in Africa for the second time at the rigorous, prestigious, and transparent country- level honour programme for consumer financial services and technology in the Middle East and Africa.

Commenting on the awards, the Managing Director of FCMB, Mrs Yemisi Edun, said: "We are excited to win two awards this year, especially the Best SME Bank in Africa, for the second year. This shows that we are meeting the specific

needs of customers in this segment and are on a growth trajector y. The awards will inspire us to further expand the frontiers of our innovation and go the extra mile to provide solutions that consistently enhance customer experience."

Thanking the Asian Banker for the a wards, Mrs Edun dedicated them to the Bank's SME customers.

She added that First City Monument Bank would continue to offer exceptional services, including funding and capacity building to small businesses.

Remarkably, the Bank has taken the lead in digitisation by automating its lending process for SMES through the FCMB Quickloans platform. Through this channel, the lender has disbursed over N100billion in loans to entrepreneurs. It processes over 25,000 digital loans, with disbursements hitting N9billion in a month in the third quarter of 2021.