FirstBank Disburses N100b Loan To Its Firstmonie Agents

<p><em>FirstBank Disburses N100b Loan<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that barely a year after the launch of its Agent Credit scheme&comma; First Bank of Nigeria Limited&comma; Nigeria’s leading financial inclusion services provider&comma; has announced that it has economically empowered its Firstmonie Agents with the sum of N100 billion&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;This is contained in a statement signed by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Folake Ani-Mumuney&comma;<&sol;a> Group Head&comma; Marketing &amp&semi; Corporate Communications of FirstBank<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the statement&comma; the Bank currently has over 120&comma;000 Firstmonie Agents&comma; spread across 772 Local Government Areas in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Agent Credit scheme was created by the banking giant to promote and expand the business activities of its foremost agent banking platform – Firstmonie Agents – whilst putting them at an advantage to positively impact their immediate environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Firstmonie Agents have been integral to bridging the financial exclusion gap&comma; providing convenient banking services that are easily accessible&comma; thereby saving time and travel costs for individuals in the suburbs and remote environments that have no access to financial services&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Bank’s financial inclusion activities are in line with the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria &lpar;CBN&rpar; to ensure the availability of affordable financial products and services to all individuals and groups of people in the country&comma; irrespective of location&comma; literacy levels&comma; familiarity with technology and accessibility to modern infrastructural facilities&period; The Firstmonie Agent channel is amongst the Bank’s many initiatives to expand financial access in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Reiterating the Bank’s role in deepening financial inclusion in the country&comma; Chuma Ezirim&comma; Group Executive&comma; e-Business &amp&semi; Retail Products&comma; said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;we are truly excited about the tremendous impact of the Agent Credit on the performance of our Firstmonie Agents nationwide&period; Since the introduction of the Agent Credit to support our &OpenCurlyQuote;Human ATMs’ as we fondly call our Firstmonie Agents&comma; they have recorded immense growth in their businesses&comma; at levels they never envisaged in such a short period&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our key goal is to continue to deliver financial services to the underserved and unbanked populations&comma; employing modern technology for processing real-time transactions and in doing so&comma; contribute to building capacities and learning new skills in information technology&comma; cash management and relationship management for our FirstMonie agents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We encourage our Firstmonie Agents to keep being exemplary in setting the pace to promote financial inclusion as we collectively work towards the continuous growth and development of the national economy&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;