First Bank to raise capacity of SMEs through breakfast series

First Bank of Nigeria Limited has concluded plans to host weekly breakfast series that will raise capacities and deepen the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria.

The breakfast series, known as ‘The Economy and You’, is a weekly radio programme that breaks the economy into smaller chunks to enable small businesses to understand it better. The programme focuses on live interviews of industry experts, accomplished SME entrepreneurs and regulators who take listeners through the process of identifying and making use of opportunities that abound for small and medium businesses in the economy.

The breakfast series is sponsored by First Bank and supported by the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC), a School of the Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos.

Speaking during an event to announce the commencement of breakfast series, Gbenga Shobo, First Bank’s deputy managing director, said the session was a way of strengthening the bank’s interaction with SMEs while providing practical help to support their business.

“The SME market is one of the bank’s strategic platforms to stimulate economic development. It remains our business to foster the growth and development of SMEs in Nigeria as the number one SME bank in Nigeria,” Shobo said.

“The breakfast series also serves as a channel to obtain feedback from customers and communicate the bank’s products and services targeted at SMEs,” he said.

Some of First Bank’s interventions in the growth of SMEs include: African Start-Up on CNN, the sponsored TV documentary on CNN showcasing SME success stories across Africa; SME Toolkits in association with EDC of Pan-Atlantic University for empowering small businesses; Ignite (an afterschool graduate employability and enterprise training initiative); constant social media engagement; and the SME Connect website, which is at the heart of all FirstBank’s SME activities.

FirstBank commenced the sponsorship of ‘The Economy & You!’ in 2015 and it has featured over 30 entrepreneurs since its debut.

The programme, which is broadcast live every Sunday at 6:15pm on Rhythm FM (Network) with a repeat broadcast streamed on EDC website www.edcradioonline.com every Wednesday, is a joint initiative of EDC and First Bank of Nigeria Limited.