By Dipo Olowookere
Ecobank Nigeria Limited has been named as the Best FX Bank under the Country & Territory Awards category for Nigeria in the 2024 Global Finance’s annual SME Bank Awards.
The parent company of the lender, Ecobank Group, on its part, clinched the Best Bank for SMEs in Africa 2024 award, reflecting its unwavering commitment to meeting the specialised needs of SMEs across its diverse markets.
At the award ceremony held on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, at the Glaziers Hall in London, the United Kingdom, Global Finance explained that the Nigerian subsidiary of the leading pan-African Banking Group won its award because of its “transaction volume, market share, breadth of offerings, and global coverage, as detailed in public company documents and media reports from Nigeria.”
“Our criteria also include subjective factors such as reputation, thought leadership, customer service, and technology innovation, using input from industry analysts, surveys, corporate executives, and others,” it noted.
While receiving the award, the Acting Group Executive for Ecobank Commercial Banking, Ms Carol Oyedeji, said despite the volatile foreign exchange (FX) challenges, Ecobank Nigeria displayed the highest levels of transparency, maintaining high transaction volume and retaining its market share in the country, saying these resulted in the recognition from Global Finance.
“This award recognises the strength of Ecobank’s support for Africa’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), enabling them to thrive and grasp the immense intra-African trade opportunities created by the AfCFTA’s single market.
“In addition to our comprehensive suite of banking, payments, collection, and financing solutions, we also offer invaluable non-financial support, such as business leadership and skills training, and our innovative matchmaking platform connecting traders, buyers, sellers and suppliers across Africa,” she stated.
In recent months, Ecobank has further expanded its lending capacity to meet the financing needs of SMEs through strategic initiatives, including a $200 million risk-sharing agreement with the African Guarantee Fund, and a $32.8 million loan facility from the eco.business Fund and the SANAD Fund for SMEs.
Aduragbemi Omiyale