Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigerian lender, Heritage Bank, has reiterated its commitment to deepen its support to young entrepreneurs in the country to grow their businesses either as start-ups or prospective business owners.
This is part of its further response to deal with the global economic challenge occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic and in line with its culture as timeless wealth partners, which would impact positively on the nation’s socio-economic development.
According to the bank’s MD/CEO, Mr Ifie Sekibo, Heritage Bank was mindful of the devastating impact of the pandemic to the nation’s economic system, hence, as an institution at the forefront of investing in human capital development for critical economy recovery, “we will up our game to empower Nigerian youths who are one of the bedrock of any vibrant economy.”
Mr Sekibo restated that the aim of Heritage Bank being at the forefront of youth empowerment is to emancipate the latent entrepreneurial spirit in the teeming youths to unleash their support to the growth of the economy.
According to him, Heritage Bank’s various entrepreneur schemes in the support for business had always focused on dependable job-creating sectors, such as agricultural value chain (fish farming, poultry, snail farming), cottage industry, mining and solid minerals, creative industry (tourism, arts and crafts), and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
He further disclosed that one of the channels churned out in partnering the youths to leverage their talents and contribute their quota to the growth of the economy, was the use of financial inclusion strategy which would be adopted to boost entrepreneurship development, as this is critical to Heritage Bank’s mission to create, preserve and transfer wealth across generations.
“At Heritage, nothing else is more fulfilling than to groom-to-empower young aspiring start-up entrepreneurs, as we mentor them to grow and become large corporates enlisted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
“In recent times, we have worked with private and public sectors- The Next Titans, HB Lab, Creative Nigerian Summit, National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST), NYSC and the Central Bank of Nigeria to support youths and young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses as a start-up or prospective business owners,” he said.
He also reiterated that the bank had continued to make efforts to lead the recovery of the Nigerian economy through championing several empowerment schemes such as the Prime Women Builders Foundation of Nigeria, Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP), Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) on Young Entrepreneurship Business Training Programme (YEBTP), Young Entrepreneurs and Students (YES) Grant and Nigerian Young Professional Forum (NYPF), amongst others.
