Banking
Sustainability Remains Essential Part of Ecobank—Adeleke
By Dipo Olowookere
The Executive Director in charge of Corporate Bank at Ecobank Nigeria, Mr Kola Adeleke, has said sustainability remains an essential part of the lender’s mission and vision of building a world-class pan-African bank.
The banker said this while receiving the Starsight Sustainability Award 2020 from the Head of Sales, SMEs at Starsight Energy, Ms Teme Jack, in Lagos recently.
According to him, the Ecobank Group Sustainability framework is focused on four thematic areas which include Economic Transformation, Environmental Sustainability, Socially Responsible Financing and Human Capital Development.
He noted that these focus areas are aligned with the tenets of the Nigerian Sustainable Banking Principles (NSBP), adding that Ecobank is a signatory member of a number of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework, including the Equator Principles and the United Nations Global Compact.
“We have set a target of achieving the goals as regard SDG/Climate change and society’s wellbeing.
“For instance, the bank is committed to taking bold steps to reduce our carbon footprint, demonstrated in carbon emission from our business operations, travels, paper use and office waste disposal.
“We further commit to investing in energy efficiency by incorporating the use of renewable energy products and practices, design architecture for energy-efficient building in new branch expansions, including retrofitting programmes; as well as mainstreaming sustainable practices in third-party contractor’s agreement for supply and procurement activities,” Mr Adeleke said.
Speaking further, he said the sustainable actions of Ecobank support the development of Nigeria and Africa as a continent.
“Ecobank is focused on mainstreaming environmental and social best practices in its operations and has adopted various ESG frameworks, including the NSBP as benchmarks for measuring its environmental stewardship.
“We have been in partnership with Starsight Energy to deliver a market-leading renewable energy solution across our branches in Nigeria, they have delivered over 100 branches facilities with renewable energy solution, thereby reducing our carbon footprint and making Ecobank one of the market leaders in the implementation of Principle 2 of NSBP,” he added.
On her part, Ms Jack lauded the commitment of Ecobank towards the application of renewable solutions, thereby reducing carbon footprints.
She stressed that the award, given to Ecobank, Starsight Renewable Energy Sustainability Award for 2020, was well deserved.
She was optimistic that Starsight partnership with Ecobank would further go a long way to environmental sustainability.
“Our partnership with Ecobank has delivered an outstanding result in a short window of time and we look forward to expanding our partnership in Nigeria and other geographical regions of operations,” Ms Jack stated.
The award given to Ecobank indicated that Ecobank is well placed to be the market leader in the establishment of Green Branches across the country.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Global financial payments giant, Visa, has made a strategic investment of $10 million in Nigerian fintech unicorn, Moniepoint, to expand its services and deepen financial inclusion on the African continent.
This development comes three months after Moniepoint raised $110 million in a Series C funding round that made the company a unicorn.
With the new play, Visa joins other investors, including Development Partners International, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, Verod Capital, Lightrock, QED Investors, Novastar Ventures, British International Investment (BII), FMO (the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank), Global Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst as equity partners.
This partnership will combine Moniepoint’s local expertise and innovative business model with Visa’s global resources and capabilities to offer payment solutions to businesses and entities.
Moniepoint provides banking and payment services to small and medium businesses and retail banking. It is one of the market leaders in Nigeria’s agent banking space, with over 300,000 POS agents and has processed billions of transactions since it was founded in 2015.
The new Visa’s investment will further help Moniepoint expand its services and deepen financial inclusion on a continent that still has a comparatively low rate of financial services adoption.
Moniepoint will leverage Visa’s Cybersource system to gain better visibility into transactions. Additionally, it plans to integrate with Visa Direct for remittances and money transfers as it looks to expand into markets within and outside Africa.
Speaking on the move, Mr Tosin Eniolorunda, Founder and Group CEO of Moniepoint said, “Visa’s backing is a strong endorsement of our vision to digitize and support African businesses at scale.
“We aim to deepen financial inclusion, enabling SMEs to access the tools and resources they need to thrive in an increasingly digital economy.”
On his part, Mr Andrew Torre, Regional President, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa, noted that, “Moniepoint has built an impressive platform that directly addresses the needs of Africa’s SMEs, a critical segment in enabling economic development.
”By making financial services and digital payments more accessible and efficient, Moniepoint is helping transform how businesses operate in Nigeria and beyond.
“We are excited to support their next phase of growth and innovation,” he added.
By Dipo Olowookere
Efforts are being made by the management of a rapidly growing financial technology (fintech) company,
Bankit Microfinance Bank (MFB), to grow its loan and gaming services.
The firm said this is one of its targets for 2025 to solidify its position as a leading platform for comprehensive, simplified banking activities after it recorded remarkable growth in 2024 with different milestones as a result of its competitive edge and cutting-edge technology.
The digital financial services provider said it was already talking to its various partners on how to ensure customers get more access to credit facilities for different needs.
It said nothing would be spared to revolutionise digital banking in Nigeria, especially with a focus on innovation, customer protection, and financial inclusion.
Last year, Bankit MFB, within its first few weeks of operations, successfully registered over 50,000 users on its platform, a testament to its innovative simple banking approach to digital banking.
This year, the small lender has an ambitious plan to increase this by 900 per cent to a record 500,000 businesses in 2025.
Business Post gathered that in 2024, the financial institution recorded impressive transaction values, exceeding N100 million, with an impressive 90 per cent transaction success rate.
Since joining the business, it has introduced web banking and other innovative banking products, with more in development.
With the financial services sector not immune to fraud, Bankit MFB said it prioritises the protection of customers’ funds, expressing its commitment to diversifying its digital services to enhance customer experience.
Bankit MFB is a financial institution licenced to operate in the country by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which is dedicated to providing innovative, customer-centric financial solutions to individuals and others.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, launch a foreign exchange (FX) code designed to boost the integrity of the market.
A statement from the banking sector regulator on Wednesday said the FX code would be unveiled at its headquarters in Abuja next week.
It explained the forex code will serve as a guideline for the ethical conduct of FX dealers in the Nigerian forex landscape.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria has approved the release of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange (FX) Code as a guideline to the banking industry to promote the ethical conduct of Authorised Dealers in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
“The bank will formally launch the code at the CBN Head Office Auditorium, Abuja, on Tuesday, January 28, 2025,” the statement read.
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