The UBA Group Head, Retail Banking, Mr Jude Anele has revealed that the bank has adopted a policy of setting aside, 10 per cent of the bank’s total balance sheet to support SMEs in countries where the bank operates in Africa.
He also disclosed that already in Nigeria, about N50 billion had been set aside from the bank’s portfolio for SMEs financing.
Speaking in Abuja as the Group Managing Director at the opening of the UBA Market Place, Mr Kennedy Uzoka, disclosed that the bank had made specific initiatives to make SMEs more viable and better established across Africa in stimulating and deepening the economy of the continent.
Business Hilights recalls that the UBA Market Place is an entrepreneurial fair, with exhibitors from 20 African countries, taking place on the sidelines of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Forum (TEFEF).
Uzoka, who unveiled Wizkid as the latest brand ambassador of the bank, averred that “We bank a lot of customers across the continent and in doing that we have discovered that there is a gap in the business value chain.
“That void we discovered is how to bring more buyers and sellers together and that is what we have done today.
“The UBA market place has brought together under one roof, more than 5,000 SMEs from across Africa. We want to create a platform in Africa similar to Alibaba and ebay,” he said.
On why Wizkid was named the youth enterprise brand ambassador of the bank, Uzoka said Africa’s youth were full of ideas that could change the standard of living and reduce poverty on the continent and that was why the bank was passionate about supporting SMEs.
Apart from Nigeria, which hosted the TEFEF 2019, participants came from several parts of the continent including Chad, Cote D’ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville, France, Guinea Conakry, Kenya, and Mali.
Others include Sierra Leone, Zambia, Cameroon, Congo DRC, Gabon, Mozambique and Tanzania.
