Business a.m.

Ecobank launches ‘Emerald Business’ club

- Adesola Afolabi

ECOBANK NIGERIA HAS LAUNCHED its ‘Emerald Business Club,’ an electronic platform aimed at offering convenienc­e, accessible banking services especially to small and medium size enterprise­s, local corporates and various clients in the commercial sector.

The initiative was launched in Lagos last week.

Charles Kie, the outgoing managing director, Ecobank Nigeria, explained that the new product was for its commercial clients as well as well as to support the SME sub sector, adding that the bank wants to bond with its customers, give them access to markets, finance and developmen­t partners such as the Bank of Industry (BoI).

According to Lie the bank believes it has a responsibi­lity in providing SMEs with solutions that would help them take care of their businesses in an efficient and cost-effective ways.

“We made these solutions available to our customers to enable easy and fast payment, to enable speed in connection­s for transactio­ns between customers and their merchants. We are providing them with the framework in which they can also interact with us.”

He explained that “For this reason, we have resolved to expand our scope in our commercial banking businesses and have designed a wide range of products specifical­ly tailored to meet the needs of target customers largely local corporate, SMEs and key public sector participan­ts.

We have also developed a number of initiative­s to support trade business and lending to our target customers. We are willing to work with the peculiarit­ies of each customer’s business so as to grow the economy.

In the same vein, the Emerald Business Club is being proposed as an implementa­tion platform for this Ecobank focus approach.”.

Kie maintained that “Our pan African Footprint has consistent­ly provided a strong platform for us to support trade and business growth across Africa. No other bank is better placed to serve you better than Ecobank. The bank is once again offering an amazing opportunit­y via the ‘Ecobank Emerald Business Club; our commercial bank customers who have been loyal now have an exciting time ahead of them.”

Also speaking at the launch, Rotimi Morohunfol­a, head, commercial banking, Ecobank Nigeria, stated the need to make its customers have a competitiv­e edge.

“We are launching this platform which we think is beneficial to our customers and of course would bring significan­t impact to their businesses.

For our commercial clients, we have set out an Emerald Club and the whole idea is to better bond with our customers, give them informatio­n about business opportunit­ies across Africa. It would also provide access to markets, finance in partnershi­p with Developmen­t Bank of Nigeria (DBN), BoI and Ikooba Technologi­es,” Morohunfol­a said.

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