Financial inclusion: First Bank rewards outstanding agents

&NewLine;<p>First Bank of Nigeria&NewLine;Limited has expressed its commitment to driving financial inclusion across&NewLine;Nigeria&period; With currently over 37&comma;000 Firstmonie Agents&comma; present in 99 percent &nbsp&semi;of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria&comma;&NewLine;the Bank is the leading financial institution at promoting financial inclusion&NewLine;in the country to all Nigerians&comma; regardless of where they are&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;Speaking during&NewLine;the&nbsp&semi;Firstmonie Agent Banking national award ceremony&comma; recently held in&NewLine;Lagos&comma;&nbsp&semi;the&nbsp&semi;Chief Executive Officer&comma;&nbsp&semi;FirstBank&comma; Dr&period; Adesola&NewLine;Adeduntan&comma; said the Firstmonie agent network is a bespoke channel through which&NewLine;the Bank expresses its unalloyed commitment and passion to promote&NewLine;opportunities and access to financial services by every Nigerian&comma; especially&NewLine;within the low-income segment&period;&nbsp&semi;The Firstmonie Agent Banking awards had the&NewLine;Bank – FirstBank – reward 37 leading Agents that have promoted financial&NewLine;inclusion in the country&period; The sum of N250&comma;000 was won at the State level by 31&NewLine;Agents&semi; N1&comma;000&comma;000&period;00 at the Regional level by 5 Agents with the grand prize&NewLine;being the sum of N2&comma;500&comma;000&period;00 at the National Level&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p> Adeduntan explained that with the initiative&comma; the gap between the tech savvy and the low literacy clients has been breached as Firstmonie agent network represents the convenient and comfortable alternative for customers&comma; that are unacquainted with sophisticated digital channels&period;  In his remarks&comma; the Deputy Managing Director&comma; First Bank of Nigeria Limited&comma; Mr&period; Francis Shobo&comma; noted that the agents are the most critical part of the banking ecosystem because they take deposits&comma; make payments and open accounts&comma; provide transfers and sell airtime at locations with little or no access to financial services&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Shobo lauded the Governor&NewLine;of the Central Bank of Nigeria &lpar;CBN&rpar;&comma; Mr&period; Godwin Emefiele for the role the apex&NewLine;bank has played&comma; stating that the CBN has made a lot of changes in regulation&NewLine;around agency banking&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;they have allowed the programme to scale as much as it&NewLine;has scaled&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p> In chat with newsmen after receiving the cash prize at the event&comma; the N2&period;5 million grand prize winner at the national level from Abuja &lpar;North Central&rpar;&comma; Zayyanu Hassan Ishaq&comma; expressed his amazement at his prize&comma; one he noted he finds very encouraging and a miracle from God&period;  &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I want to thank FirstBank for this gesture&period; It took me by surprise&comma; because I never expected it from them&period; This is a miracle&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;FirstBank is truly different&period; This will spur me to work harder and ensure more people have access to the top-class financial services offered by FirstBank” joy-filled Ishaq concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;