FirstBank Strengthens Gender Inclusion ,Launches Single-Digit Loan For Women-Owned Businesses

<h4>FirstBank Strengthens Gender Inclusion &comma;Launches Single-Digit Loan For Women-Owned Businesses<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has learned that in furtherance of its role in promoting female entrepreneurship across the country&comma; Nigeria’s premier banking institution and leading financial inclusion services provider&comma; First Bank of Nigeria Limited&comma; has announced the launch of the FirstGem fund &lpar;FirstGem loan&rpar;&semi; a single-digit loan scheme&comma; exclusively designed to put women at an advantage in contributing to the socio-economic development of the country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The FirstGem loan scheme is designed for female-owned or partnered SMEs in the following sectors Food&sol;Beverage processing &amp&semi; Packaging&comma; Beauty and cosmetics&comma; Confectionery&comma; Catering &amp&semi; Restaurants&comma; Transportation &lpar;Logistics&rpar; and Agric&sol;Agro-Allied &lpar;retail value chain&rpar;&period; With an interest rate of 9&percnt; per annum&comma; FirstGem loan is a collateral-free loan that is available to the bank’s existing and prospective female customers&period; Based on eligibility&comma; customers can access loans from N500&comma;000&period;00 to N3&comma;000&comma;000&period;00&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;To access the loan&comma; Female owned or partnered SMEs can visit the Bank’s website &&num;8211&semi; https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;firstbanknigeria&period;com&sol;personal&sol;loans&sol;more-financing-options&sol;firstgem-funds&sol; &&num;8211&semi; to download and fill out the Retail Loan Application Form&period; The completely filled form should be submitted to the nearest FirstBank branch with accompanying documents&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Speaking on the loan Folake Ani-Mumuney&comma; Group Head&comma; First Bank of Nigeria Limited said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;we are delighted with the role our FirstGem product plays in creating an avenue to enlarge the business activities and endeavours of female entrepreneurs across the country&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Our FirstGem value proposition offers real solutions to constraints encountered by female entrepreneurs and working professionals&comma; as it exposes women to opportunities for the advancement of their business&period; We implore every female business-minded individual to take advantage of the FirstGem loan as it puts them at an advantage to contribute their quota to the national economy&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Launched in 2016&comma; FirstGem has been impactful in driving financial inclusion&comma; influencing women&&num;8217&semi;s empowerment through gender-advancement programmes like savings culture&comma; financial literacy&comma; wealth management and building an investment portfolio&period; FirstGem is designed specifically to meet the needs of the female gender&comma; aged 18 years and above&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;FirstGem is targeted at a broad spectrum of women&comma; working professionals&comma; entrepreneurs or market women through an array of benefits such as free business advisory services&comma; access to finance&comma; specialized training on business development initiatives &lpar;virtual and physical events&rpar;&comma; regular insights on business &sol; investment opportunities and mouth-watering discounts at partner merchant outlets &lpar;spas&comma; salons&comma; grocery stores&rpar; offering lifestyle products and services&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Recently&comma; FirstBank announced its partnership with CDC Group&comma; the UK Government’s development finance organisation to economically empower women-owned and led businesses as well as local small and medium-sized enterprises &lpar;SMEs&rpar; in Nigeria&period; The facility&comma; which is in the sum of US&dollar;100 million will have a minimum of 30&percnt; allocated in the form of credit lines to women entrepreneurs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;