Omodele Adigun
Barely 24 hours after securing $50 million facility from Africa Development Bank (AfDB) for onlending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Fidelity Bank Plc has dangled the largesse before members of the Balogun Business Association (BBA) to sustain their continued patronage.
According to its Managing Director/CEO, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, who made the plea during a rally by the Association Wednesday in Lagos, the bank is set up primarily to take deposit and grant loans to those who need it.“And that is what Fidelity has been doing”, he added.
Okonkwo explained that the AfDB facility is targeted at people like most of the traders in the market, including women entrepreneurs who are penciled down to receive 30 per cent of the loans. Okonkwo also pledged the bank’s commitment to help develop the market.
His words: “No amount of advertisement would tell you some of the products that we have. We support SMEs. Just yesterday, we signed a $50million agreement with AfDB for us to receive that money and lend it to SMEs like most of the people in this market. Because we are supportive of women, we have set aside 30 per cent of the $50 million, that is $15million strictly for women entrepreneurs.
“We have a product called Commercial Support Overdraft. It is mainly for traders. Any average turnover you do over six-month period, Fidelity Bank grants you a loan of 25 per cent of that turnover without giving us your house or anything as collateral. There is one product I think this market would need and should be aware of.
“Today, when you want to transfer a foreign currency, you go to the bank, But Fidelity has made it easier now. From your mobile phone, the way you transfer Naira is how you can transfer dollar now; you can transfer Euro; you can transfer Pounds from your mobile phone.”