FirstBank Is First In Financial Inclusion

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>FirstBank is rated first as a financial institution with largest agent banking network<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has learnt that at the moment&comma; FirstBank is first in financial inclusion in Nigeria&period; Information available to this online medium indicates that there are over 86&comma;000 banking agents across 772 out of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria&comma; a demonstration of FirstBank’s commitment to deepening financial inclusion and ensuring the unbanked are adequately catered for&period; In an interview with BusinessDay&comma; Adesola Adeduntan&comma; FirstBank’s CEO&comma; noted that over N9&period;6 trillion had been processed through the bank’s agent network&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As he explained&comma; FirstMonie agents have supported several government and NGOs’ cash transfers to the poorest of the poor in the rural areas&period; Additionally&comma; selected FirstMonie agents in the rural communities are equipped with BVN enrolment devices&semi; as such they are able to enrol and open accounts for rural dwellers that hitherto may not have had the opportunity to be included in the formal financial services system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The bank’s commitment to providing access to finance for Small and Medium Enterprises &lpar;SMEs&rpar; was also highlighted by the CEO&comma; who hinged this on &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;their potential to impact the economy”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He unveiled that FirstBank is solution driven and added that  the bank’s value adding solutions  have created a functional ecosystem for SMEs to thrive&period; The ecosystem includes propositions such as connection of the SMEs to talents and resources&sol;cutting edge tools&comma; access to business finance and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">market&comma;<&sol;a> capacity building opportunities and policy advocacy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These are all aggregated on its SMEConnect platform as value adding products and services for easy access and at rates &lpar;prices&rpar; that are competitive and mostly discounted&period; The SMEConnect is a digital platform that allows the SMEs connect to FirstBank’s offerings from the comfort of their locations anywhere in the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This&comma; according to Adeduntan&comma; has been well received by the SME community as we engage across the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;