By Peter Egwuatu

 Standard Chartered Bank, SCB Nigeria has stated its commitment to boost the financing of infrastructure in order to enhance the nation’s economic growth.

The Executive Director, Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Bank, SCB, Olukorede Adenowo disclosed this in an interactive session with Vanguard at its corporate headquarter in Lagos, saying: “Much is not heard about our commitment in the financing of infrastructure in Nigeria.

Actually we have been doing underground work on this. We are going to partner with government agency in financing more infrastructure like railways, oil and gas, water and so on. We are working closely with our partners to actualise these projects. We are also working with sovereign authority to provide some infrastructure across the country. We shall be providing advisory services to our clients in the areas of infrastructure as well.”

On the bank’s plan to grow its retail business, he said: “Nigeria continues to be a key market for Africa Middle East, AME region. Our aspiration is to be the leading international bank in the country. We are sharpening our focus on the affluent segment, investing in technology and becoming more efficient in order to reach all our clients anywhere in the country.

To boost our retail business we have launched our agency banking for clients providing them with a platform where they are able to cash in /cash out ; make payments/open accounts and transfer funds etc amongst other services available at their disposal. We also plan to launch our digital lending solution which enables clients to apply for loan products from the comfort of their homes”.

Speaking as well, on the closure of some of its branches in the country, Sarmad Lone, Regional Head, Client Coverage, AME, SCB said: “  We are listening to our customers what they want in terms of products and services. So a growing number of customers told us they want products and services they can access and utilise anytime, anywhere, from the convenience of their own mobile devices.  Therefore, we are optimising our branch network to be strategically positioned to serve the few of our customers who do wish to still connect with us psychically. We are having about 300,000 clients after we reduced our branches from 120,000 clients. Now we have clients in every state of the country. More of our clients prefer to deal with us digitally. Again we did not lay off our staff from those branches that were affected instead we redeployed them to other services of the bank.”

While responding to question on the bank exiting its retail presence in the country, Mark Price, Regional Head, Financial Markets, AME said: “We have operated in Nigeria since 1999 and remain committed to this country. We will continue to support the growth aspirations of our clients here. Many of our clients are advocating for digital channels as a means of engaging with the bank, so we would be here for them”.