First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has won a platinum award and best participating financial institution with most impact on Total End-Borrowers Financed 2020 at the Service Ambassadors’ programme organised by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) in Lagos, recently.

   In addition, three employees of the Bank won Service Ambassador Awards at the event. They are Oluremi Agboola, Toyin Ajibulu and Augustine Ibelegbu. The trio also received a training grant of N5.5 million.

   The awards were given in recognition of FCMB’s leadership in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) space and for its outstanding support to the growth of businesses in Nigeria.

  At the same time, the employees were recognised for their part in the Bank’s efforts to alleviate the funding challenges facing SMEs in the country.

    The Service Ambassadors’ Programme is designed to recognise and celebrate organisations that have shown strong commitment towards the development and success of businesses in terms of funding, capacity building and other support.

    Commenting on the award and its significance, the Managing Director of FCMB, Mrs Yemisi Edun, said: “Our emergence as winner of the Platinum Award and four other awards is another proof that we are living up to the expectations of customers and the entire business community.

   “We are committed to ensuring that all segments of society have access to the transformative power of financial services to help them fulfil their personal and business aspirations. The fact that three of our staff also won Service Ambassador Awards is a testimony of the solid human capacity and talent at FCMB.

   “SMEs should continue to count on us to provide the right solutions that would make them more productive and, in turn, scale up their contributions to national development. We thank the Development Bank of Nigeria for considering us worthy of this award.”

    Two months ago, FCMB, the SME friendly bank, was named the Best SME Bank in Africa and Best SME Bank in Nigeria at the Asian Banker Middle East and Africa Regional Awards – the rigorous, prestigious, and transparent country-level honour programme for consumer financial services and technology in the Middle East and Africa.

   Indeed, FCMB has taken the lead in driving the growth and development of businesses. The Bank has digitised and automated its lending process for SMEs through the FCMB Quick-Loans platform. Through this channel, the lender has disbursed over N100 billion in loans to entrepreneurs.

    It processes over 25,000 digital loans, with monthly disbursements exceeding N15 billion in September 2021.

   In addition, the Bank provides market intelligence and technical assistance support to small businesses. It also ensures access to intervention funds in partnership with Development Financial Institutions to mitigate the credit risk and collateral gaps experienced in lending to SMEs.

  So far, FCMB has provided over N25 billion loan guarantee support to SMEs with inadequate collateral or those in the start-up stage.

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