Yemisi Izuora
Fidelity Bank Plc has set aside N30 billion as export financing line for Nigerian exporters.
The bank is also partnering with the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and Lagos Business School in the Export Leadership Initiative (ELI) programme.
The managing director (MD) and chief executive of the bank, Nnamdi Okonkwo, at the launch of the program stressed the need to support exporters and micro, small and medium businesses as part of ways to diversify the Nigerian economy away from oil.
He noted that exporters and MSMEs in the value chain line need more than financing which is one of the reasons it had spearheaded the educative programme which is targeted at educating and improving the capacity of the exporters.
On his own part, the chief executive of the NEPC, Segun Awolowo, emphasised the importance of training as a way of boosting exports, noting that Australia had improved the number of exporters from 4,000 to 50,000 in one month with a similar kind of training.
Awolowo who said that the number of exporters registering with the council has been on the rise since the beginning of the month, called on exporters to focus more on finished goods as a value adding strategy.
On his own part, the dean of the Lagos Business School, Dr Enase Okonedo, who was represented by Dr Frank Ogali, said that the ELI programme will be in two parts, one for established exporters and another for fresh and intending eporters.
The bank has so far disbursed N2 billion to 120 customers under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s N220 billion MSME Development Fund while 10 of the customers have refunded the facility granted them.
The bank has also given out over N60 billion as loans to MSMEs.