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<p><strong><em>At a time financial and business analysts are congregating at different fora to re evaluate Nigeria’s economic outlook in the 3rd decade of the 21st century, </em>UgoAliogo<em>, a writer, in this piece, </em></strong><em><strong> externalizes First Bank’s strength in supporting and </strong></em><strong><em> driving Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) growth in the country</em></strong></p>



<p>First Bank of Nigeria Limited
has reiterated its commitment to driving growth and building the capacity of
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.</p>



<p>Speaking at the FirstBank
SMEConnect Business Clinic, held in Lagos on Thursday, the Group Head, Lagos
Island 1, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Olufunke Smith stated that the business
clinic provides an opportunity for SMEs to understand how to develop their
business plans, and run their business. It is one of the key initiatives that
the bank has put in place to drive development of the SMEs. She further noted
that the Bank’s SMEs proposition is based on seven pillars that would connect
SMEs to- capacity building, market, infrastructure, talent for business
development, policy and regulation, finance and resources.</p>



<p>According to her, “Building the
capacities of SMEs is an ongoing process. SMEs are the engine of growth of any
society. At FirstBank it is our responsibility to bring them on-board through
support, knowledge sharing, and advisory in order for them to add value to the
society. The SMEs attending the clinics today have gone through a selection
process and it is the first of 2020, there will be more clinics to be held in
the course of the year.</p>



<p>“SMEs are the bedrock of
economic growth of any society. It is when you have functional SMEs that the
country can grow. It is noteworthy to mention here that SMEs are great
employers of labour. When you have viable SMEs they provide various services
and innovations that traditional corporations may not provide. These strongly
underscore our commitment – at FirstBank – to strengthening their impact on the
economy.</p>



<p>“This clinic is part of giving back to the society, thereby ensuring we continue to develop SMEs. FirstBank has recognised that for it to serve SMEs adequately there is a need to offer more than traditional banking services. We know that connecting SMEs to the right information and business tools can save turnaround time, cost and give them a competitive edge in the sector that they operate. It is on this knowledge that we have created value propositions for SMEs that cover financial and non-financial services.” We expose SMEs to the best deals and they have access to tools that position them at an advantage for growth.”</p>



<p>In his remarks, the Managing
Partner, Traction, DolapoAdejuyigbe, said “we have a coaching marketplace that
SMEs can come on our platform and even firstbank platform to book vetted
coaches that can provide advisory services to them either for one session or a
number of sessions. We also consider re-emerging how our business clinics can
work and how to bring insights and make it practical. The FirstBank business
diagnostic tool enables SMEs identify the needs, especially operational, of
their business and the business clinic is designed in such a way we can follow
up on the impacts and also track the business after three to six months. The
focus of this business clinic is to help them design the strategy for 2020. A
core part of that is for them to understand the economic trends, and we have
catered for different kinds of businesses and how the economy is going to impact
them.”</p>



<p>In his remarks, one of the
speakers at the event, Gospel Obele, said the clinic provided an opportunity to
develop a business and market outlook for SMEs, stating that the goal was to
scale economic knowledge into useable insights for SMEs.</p>



<p>Commending FirstBank on the SME
Clinic, Obele noted thatthe event exposed SMEs to lots of opportunities for
their business growth like how the Nigerian business environment is going to
look like through the year as well as the transition dynamics of the consumer.”</p>



<p>He said: “Examining strategyfrom
the outlook that was presented today, it is more of how SMEs rework their
internal systems to respond to the changing environment that we have. Nigeria
is a high fluid and dynamic economy which means that our own business
environment is changing faster than advanced economies”</p>



<p>One of the participants at the
clinic, TayoOginni, President/CEO, International Energy Market Place Ltd., said
attending the seminar provided background knowledge on how to develop a road map
for setting up a business in a structured manner. </p>



<p>He asserted that the business
clinic taught SMEs the things to be aware of when starting a business, “the
facilitator created an atmosphere of things that need to be done. I will
strongly recommend that SMEs need this kind of intervention.” </p>



<p>Ogini also lauded FirstBank and
Traction for organising the clinic, noting that one of the key areas discussed
at the clinic was financing where SMEs were taught that cashflow is key in
business, therefore they have to watch their cashflow.</p>

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