Extended COVID 19 Lockdown: FirstBank enhances palliative, kicks off e-learning initiative

&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">FirstBank&comma; premier bank in West Africa and leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 125 years&comma; has unveiled enhanced palliative measures to help its customers and Nigerians through these times of the extended COVID 19 lockdown in some states&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Amongst these measures are&semi; the introduction of&nbsp&semi; special waivers on repayment fees on the Bank’s credit cards as well as up to 90-days moratorium on SME loans&period; The aim of these is to cushion the impact of the toll on employment and livelihoods&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">It was announced in the course of the week that the Lagos State Government &amp&semi; Roducate e-learning initiative – sponsored by FirstBank – had kicked off&period; The initiative includes the government accredited curriculum for primary&comma; secondary and tertiary schools designed to ensure children are adequately guided and engaged through their learning experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Upon the lockdown in March&comma; the Bank had announced to move One Million children to e-learning which is implemented with a number of renowned organisations that have come on board from within and outside the continent&period; These partners include IBM&comma; which is providing opportunities for the acquisition of digital skills including Coding&comma; Artificial Intelligence and Data Science &amp&semi; Analytics which would promote opportunities to learn skills of the future&period; These measures are taken in identifying with the roles of children at securing the future of any country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Reflecting on the words by Benjamin Franklin&comma; thus &&num;8216&semi;an investment in knowledge pays the best interest&&num;8217&semi; Dr&period; Adesola Adeduntan&comma; CEO&comma; FirstBank said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;in keeping with who we are at FirstBank&comma; our commitment to self-development and continuous improvement is never far from our thinking&period; As such we are encouraging all to consider and register for any of the excellent programmes being offered free by Ivy League schools and have curated a list of them covering topics such as management&comma; personal development&comma; and entrepreneurship which can be found on our website&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;04&sol;Dr&period;-Adesola-Adeduntan-CEO-FirstBank-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-2989"&sol;><figcaption> <strong><em>Dr&period; Adesola Adeduntan&comma; CEO&comma; FirstBank<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">In addition&comma; Dr&period; Adeduntan stated that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;with these measures&comma; we are delighted to support our customers because you all have empowered us to do so by choosing to Bank with us&period; This is indeed a time to double down efforts and explore opportunities to ease the impact of the extension on you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">Once again&comma; we appreciate our customers for the giant strides achieved on our alternative channels&comma; as we assure you of our commitment to continue to work tirelessly to provide essential banking services across these channels&period; The transaction volumes is a positive testimony to the resilience of our staff and your Bank to keep things going as COVID 19 will neither defeat nor slow us down&period; We remain fully persuaded that together we will overcome this too&period;”&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our experience over 126 years tells us the solutions lie within us&comma; more than ever as we uphold our promise to you to be here for you and put You First always&comma;” he concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;