First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited has emerged as the Best SME Bank in Nigeria and Africa respectively at the Asian Banker Middle East and Africa Regional Awards which held August 27th 2021.
FCMB beats other Nigerian and African banks to clinch the national and continental honours.
The bank has emerged as Best SME Bank in Africa for the second time at the prestigious and transparent country-level honour programme for consumer financial services and technology in the Middle East and Africa.
Managing Director, FCMB, Mrs. Yemisi Edun, commenting on the awards, said; “We are excited to win two awards this year, especially the Best SME Bank in Africa, for the second year. This shows that we are meeting the specific needs of customers in this segment and are on a growth trajectory.”
“The awards will inspire us to further expand the frontiers of our innovation and go the extra mile to provide solutions that consistently enhance customer experience.”
“We thank the Asian Banker for the awards and dedicate them to the Bank’s SME customers. First City Monument Bank will continue to offer exceptional services, including funding and capacity building to small businesses.”
Without doubt, FCMB has taken the lead in digitisation by automating its lending process for SMEs through the FCMB Quickloans platform. Through this channel, the lender has disbursed over N100billion in loans to entrepreneurs. It processes over 25,000 digital loans, with disbursements hitting N9billion in a month in the third quarter of 2021.
Besides, FCMB provides market intelligence and technical assistance support to small businesses, access to intervention funds in partnership with Development Financial Institutions, as well as provision of credit facilities to mitigate the credit risk and collateral gaps experienced in lending to SMEs.
Meanwhile, FCMB has provided over N23 billion loan guarantee support to SMEs with inadequate collateral or those in the start-up stage.
It is interesting to know that over 30 financial institutions and technology companies from 10 countries in the Middle East and Africa historically send in entries for adjudication at the annual Asian Banker Middle East and Africa Regional Awards.
Apart from its panel of international assessors, the judging process is supplemented by BankQuality, a premier rating site for financial service providers and customers.
