As part of its financial inclusion programme, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) through its agency banking network, EasyAgents has onboarded and empowered one million financially excluded Nigerians.
The bank in its bid to support trade in the country has also made available microloans valued at N40 billion to over 300,000 beneficiaries comprising 200,000 women traders across the country who have accessed over US$51.28 million (N28.7 billion) of the total loan sum.
Speaking on the gesture, the Managing Director of FCMB, Mrs. Yemisi Edun said, “We are proud of our significant role in integrating Nigeria’s huge informal economy driven by small-scale farmers, traders, artisans, and other small and medium-sized businesses into the formal economy through affordable and sustainable access to financial services.
“Access to financial services enables prosperity and allows disadvantaged and vulnerable people to improve their lives, create wealth and reduce poverty. So, we will continue championing and executing initiatives that deepen access to affordable and sustainable financial services in our local communities to empower individuals and businesses.”
To boost its financial inclusion drive, the bank in 2021 forged a partnership with World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI) to deepen agency banking and financial inclusion by rolling out an integrated savings account – ‘Easy Account’- to empower two million farmers by 2023.
Furthermore, the bank entered into a partnership with Shee-Coops, an international organisation that raises women’s active participation in cooperatives around the world, to provide funding to millions of women in the next five years to pursue opportunities that improve their livelihoods.
At the last count, FCMB has invested in more than 10,000 agency bankers that bring financial services to the streets and doorsteps of millions of Nigerians in peri-urban and rural areas. They are currently driving the onboarding and empowering of unbanked and under-banked.
