Ecobank partners Enterprise Development Centre for grants to SME operators

Ecobank Nigeria in partnership with the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan-Atlantic University has trained and extended financial grants worth millions of naira to five budding Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operators in the country under the ‘Ecobank New Venture Initiative’ (ENVI).
The ENVI, an innovative business training education programme is collaboration between Ecobank SME Club and the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of the Pan Atlantic University.

The five selected SME entrepreneurs otherwise known as ENVI Fellows include: Olufemi Adenekan, Daily Fresh Farms; James Onyebuchi, Ojames Footwears; Winifred Obazeh,  Asa Organics; Ifeoluwa Olatayo, Soupah Kitchen Limited and Adegboyega Adesida, Charms Horizon International Farms Ltd. The beneficiaries were enrolled for a one year training and mentorship with EDC leading to the award of the highly sought Certificate Entrepreneurial Management at EDC, the premier SME focused training Centre of the Pan- Africa University. The grant was awarded midway into the training so as to monitor a real life growth in their businesses over the one year mentorship with EDC.

Speaking at the presentation of grants to the recipients in Lagos, Business Executive, Business Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Kingsley Umadia, said the massive support for SMEs is in line with the bank’s philosophy which recognizes the SME sub sector as the engine room of the nation’s economic growth. According to Umadia “the EMVI initiative is part of our plans to help grow small businesses. Apart from capacity building, we want to see these businesses grow hence the financial support. I believe this will further deepen Ecobank brand in the SME sector in Nigeria”.

Stating the rationale of ENVI, Head SME/Value Chain, Ecobank Nigeria, Sunkami Olowo, explained that the programme is geared towards developing the capacity of entrepreneurs thereby creating sustainability in their business and also growing their bottom line. “The EMVI is an initiative between Ecobank and EDC. The SMEs were selected from  over 150 participants that applied for the program across the country while 32 SMEs made the final list, the 5 successful participants were selected after a rigorous exercise. The selected entrepreneurs were all young business owners below the age of 35 years. From our interaction, the training is already impacting positively in their business as the participants have grown their business averagely by over 250 percent since we commence the program. We will support and monitor them over a period of one year with EDC and subsequently their business growth over many years,” he stated. They will remain as Ambassadors of Ecobank in the SME space.

The Deputy Director, EDC, Pan- Atlantic University, Nneka Okekearu, said the five EMVI Fellows demonstrated good team spirit and were actively involved in networking during the capacity building training. “These young vibrant entrepreneurs showed lot of promises during the training and they have started implementing what they were taught in class under our supervision. This is a laudable initiative and we will continue to follow up with them,” she noted.

The highly elated EMVI Fellows, who were full of gratitude to Ecobank and EDC, agreed that the training is already impacting positively on their business. They agreed that the tailored capacity building provided the much-needed solutions to the challenges they were facing prior to the training. They submitted that the financial grant will lead to further expansion of their business..