Stanbic IBTC testimonial campaign demystifies non-funding myth by SMEs
“The SME sector is pivotal to the economic growth and development of any nation and Nigeria is no exception, and we must ensure that operators get the right support in terms of infrastructure, financing and capacity building,” These were the words used by Stanbic IBTC recently to reiterate the need to support business enterprise in the country. These words express the sentiments held by Stanbic IBTC regarding the symbiotic roles of the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises sector and financial institutions.
To buttress this assertion, Stanbic IBTC Bank, in an ongoing testimonial campaign, features some of the businesses across the country it has partnered in terms of supporting them with banking solutions, advisory services and facilities. The campaign not only shows Stanbic IBTC’s strong footprint in the SME sector, it also helps to disapprove a generally held, but erroneous, belief that financial institutions hardly support enterprise to grow.
The testimonial campaign broke early this year. It features real and known businesses across the country, from the south and from the north that have benefitted from Stanbic IBTC Bank’s partnership and support. The 360 degree marketing campaign includes press and outdoor, online, radio, digital and offline bits and is expected to run through this year. Prominently displayed on the huge LED on Maryland Mall, Lagos, is Omoyemi Chukwurah of Seams and Stitches, who says “Stanbic IBTC gave me wings to fly.” According to the promoter of another featured business, Sabitu Mohammed Yahaya, managing director of Jifatu General Enterprises Nigeria Limited, of all the banks he had approached, only Stanbic IBTC Bank understood his need for business perpetuity and it was easy for him to make it his bank.
On radio, owners of featured businesses were engaged in short interviews on their relationships with Stanbic IBTC Bank and their impression of the bank. The business owners were effusive in their commendation of Stanbic IBTC Bank while highlighting some of the beneficial traits that endeared them to the bank. “We’ve been together with Stanbic IBTC for the past 10 years. Stanbic IBTC actually takes the time to sit down to get to know the customer,” says Ibrahim Bayero, managing director, National Trucks Manufacturers Limited, a leading truck and agricultural machinery assembly plant based in Kano. On his experience with Stanbic IBTC Bank, Bayero says it has been “a remarkably positive experience” and that “Stanbic IBTC is a listening bank.”
Also, Munzali Muhammed, managing director of Mazafmini Depot Limited, a commodity distribution merchant, says with the support from and expertise of Stanbic IBTC Bank, he has grown “from a mini depot to a mega commodity distributor merchant,” adding, “Whatever support you need you can always count on Stanbic IBTC Bank.”
The testimonials cut across sectors and industries, from manufacturing, distribution, communications to trading, investment and agriculture, among others. The various industries featured underline Stanbic IBTC’s value proposition as an end-to-end financial services solutions provider and its pledge to assist businesses and individuals realize their latent potential and accomplish their goals through financial solutions that deliver outstanding value.
Perhaps the most significant element in the testimonials is the demonstration of the assurance that Stanbic IBTC is a partner in progress. The testimonials spew a feeling of pride as the campaign reflects the level of confidence Stanbic IBTC Bank has in the businesses it supports. The interviewees used terms such as ‘know the customers’, ‘listening bank’, ‘support’, ‘care’ while describing their relationship with Stanbic IBTC Bank. These terms are indicative of a partnership which transcends mere bank-customer relationship. A partner has a deeper and genuine interest in the growth of the other partner, well beyond pecuniary needs, and is willing to go the extra mile to make the relationship worthwhile. Supporting local businesses and ensuring their growth is an article of faith with Stanbic IBTC Bank.
The financial institution has undoubtedly spent a huge sum of money to give free advertising and publicity to its partner SME businesses. The massive impact of the testimonials, in terms of leads and new businesses, on the featured SMEs can only be imagined. Testimonial campaigns may not be entirely new in the financial services industry and in other industries in the country, but the scale of Stanbic IBTC’s ongoing testimonials has certainly pushed the dial.
Stanbic IBTC is not new to pushing the dial of service quality and delivery, customer relations and satisfaction. Indeed, the Stanbic IBTC Group is a pacesetter in innovation across the entire spectrum of financial services: from retail and corporate banking, pensions, assets management to trusteeship, insurance brokerage, stockbroking and custodian services. It continues to simplify its processes to ensure that customers are better served. Only recently, the bank expressed its willingness to digitize its entire operations when it launched the first self-service digital bank branch in the country. “We have long embraced digitalization to strengthen our operations and processes, make them more accessible, efficient and cost effective,” says Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Bank, Dr Demola Sogunle.
Businesses need cash, no doubt, but much more they need capacity building as well as advisory services to survive. This explains why Stanbic IBTC Bank believes in a partnership that works. Such partnerships breed business and networking opportunities, as well as human capital development and marketing.
SMEs and other businesses have continued to benefit from a number of key initiatives by the bank targeted at helping them achieve growth. Stanbic IBTC Bank knows the SME sector is pivotal to the economic growth and development of the nation and understands that operators must get the right support in terms of infrastructure, financing and capacity building for sustainability. It is such thinking that drove the bank’s establishment of a unique digital banking platform, the virtual business centre, to support small businesses with transactional products; savings and investment solutions; lending products; and wealth protection solutions. A yearly SME training series was equally conceived to provide innovative marketing, financial and management skills that are useful to small businesses and which will provide the skills set needed for their businesses to grow.
The 2016 Stanbic IBTC SME training sessions took place across the country in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Ibadan, Aba, Kano, Onitsha and Enugu to ensure coverage for the six geo-political zones. Already, plans are underway to deepen and enrich the trainings to make them even more relevant. The uniqueness of these yearly training is the fact that it is free and open to interested business owners or budding entrepreneurs, both customers and non-customers of Stanbic IBTC. The bank contracts professional and skilled external resource persons to handle the sessions. At the sessions, thousands of participants are yearly taken through topics on human resources, finance and accounting, customer relations, marketing and sales, taxation, entrepreneurship, and book keeping, advertising, employee engagement, among others. Th 2016 trainings had over 2,000 registered participants that were availed empirical lessons on how businesses can survive a recession.
Stanbic IBTC Bank had also in the past sought collaborative efforts to help SMEs achieve capacity building. For instance, last year, Stanbic IBTC Bank collaborated with Google to train over a thousand young entrepreneurs and SME operators in eight cities on digital skills. “By organising the capacity building sessions in different parts of the country, the partners hope to build critical mass of businesses through increased adoption of digital technology and enhance their contributions to economic development,’’ the bank had said of the collaboration.
A sound knowledge of and robust approach to business management will, no doubt, ensure the survival of SMEs. Focusing only on finance may not augur well for the growth and development of small and medium enterprises. Stanbic IBTC Bank clearly understands this hence the desire to promote businesses by providing financing, helping with capacity building as well as assisting their marketing drive as the testimonial campaign has shown.
Adebayo Adebola
Adebola, a former editor of Stockwatch Magazine, is a Lagos-based public affairs and financial analyst