Fidelity Bank Sensitises Exporters

As part of efforts aimed at boosting exports in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc recently collaborated with the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Ghanaian based West African Trade and Investment (WATI) HUB to organise an African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) workshop for leather and garment cluster businesses in the South-eastern part of the country.

The two-day event with the theme: “Taking the Advantage of Export Opportunities to the United States under AGOA,” took place in Aba.

The event featured miniexhibition by the manufacturers of the leather and garment goods.

General Manager, Managed SMEs Division, Fidelity Bank, Mr. Ken Opara who represented the Fidelity Bank CEO, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, told the participants at the workshop that it was the desire of the bank to give the entrepreneurs the needed exposure to the local and international market.

“It’s important to key into the incentive scheme of AGOA – an incentive scheme that the American government put in place to support export of African products into American market.

“AGOA guarantees duty-free exports, but our people are not fully aware of the compliance levels needed for them to take advantage these incentives,” he was quoted to have said in a statement.

He also explained that Fidelity Bank wants manufacturers in the Aba cluster to generate the needed foreign exchange of their own. He maintained that Aba, being one of the commercial nerve centres in the country, was pivotal to the diversification of the Nigerian economy to non-oil sectors.

“We are using this platform to provide them all that they need to know to secure loans to be able to drive businesses in order to participate in the AGOA scheme.

“As a bank, we are with them all the way from capacity building to access to funding, including equipment finance where necessary,” he stated.