By Nkiruka Nnorom

The nationwide effort by Stanbic IBTC Bank, a member of the Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, to help build a vibrant small and medium scale enterprises sector in Nigeria was taken to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, recently where over 500 participants converged at the Ibadan Civic Centre for the one-day capacity building workshop.

A similar session held in Lagos on February 11-12, while others are planned for Port Harcourt, Aba, Abuja and Kano, among other cities spread across the six geo-political zones in the country.

At the workshop, the bank reiterated that the key objective of the workshop is to equip its clients operating in the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) sub-sector with financial, marketing and management skills that they can readily deploy to nurture and grow their businesses.

“The SME sector is pivotal to the economic growth and development of any nation and Nigeria is no exception, which is why the seminar was conceived to avail SME operators exposure to modern and innovative marketing, financial and management skills that are useful to their businesses and which will help them to attract the necessary funding for growth,” Executive Director, Personal and Business Banking, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Obinnia Abajue, said.

Abajue, who was represented by the Regional Head, SME, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Mr. Tayo Adediran, stated that Stanbic IBTC Bank, backed by the rich heritage and know-how of the Standard Bank Group, is committed to building a strong SME base in Nigeria and one of the ways it hopes to achieve this is by empowering operators with the right business skills and adequate funding. “Stanbic IBTC Bank has a rich pedigree of building capacity for SMEs and providing much-needed support in terms of funding and skills acquisition because we understand the important linkages provided by SMEs to industries and employment generation. This seminar is one of several ways the bank continues to build capacity in the SME sector,” Abajue said.

Chief Executive Officer, West Atlantic Resource & Equity House Ltd, Adegboyega Adebajo, who made presentations on Economic Outlook for 2015 and Business Planning, noted that developments in the global economy, notably those emanating from America, Europe and Emerging Asia, impact the local economy, with small and medium enterprises also affected.