Providus Bank empowers 60 entrepreneurs with funding

SME-focused bank, Providus Bank, in partnership with Enterprise Development Centre, has provided funding and access to markets for small and growing businesses.

This was disclosed in a statement issued by the bank on Monday.

It said that the partnership with the enterprise unit of Pan Atlantic University was in alignment with the Federal Government’s vision of support for businesses.

Speaking at the event recently in Lagos, Head of SME, Providus Bank, Damilola Feyide, said; “Today, we launched the fourth edition of the Providus SME Programme, which is a programme that is focused on capacity building in partnership with the Enterprise Development Center, a unit of Lagos Business School to train 60 Entrepreneurs.”
She pointed out that Providus Bank had created an SME desk with the mandate to create programmes that would help in SME development.

Feyide remarked that participants were given access to market and funding, discounted interest rate loans for the first time.

Also speaking on this development, the Director of Programmes and Partnership, Enterprise Development Centre, Pan African University, Dr Olawale Anifowose, said, “At Enterprise Development Centre, we focused on supporting small and growing businesses in Nigeria through capacity building, and this, we have done with numerous institutions and organisations that are interested in developing the SME sector in the country.”

He further stressed that corporate bodies operating in Nigeria who were yet to tap into that initiative should borrow a leaf from Providus Bank.

According to him, the SME sector is critical to the development of the nation’s economy, so firms should support SMEs through capacity building like this.

Also, the founder and Creative Director of Zozzah, a participant at the event, John Akande, disclosed that when he saw a flier of the programme on Instagram, he did not take it seriously, but after passing through the selection processes and also participating in the programme, he was convinced that the initiative was worth it.