ONE of the ways businesses reduce the risk of decline in revenue due to delayed payment for goods and services is the use of Direct Debit.

MANAGING Director of Infrastructure Bank Plc, Mr. Adekunle Oyinloye, has called on operators in the insurance industry to invest more in infrastructure financing in the country.

VALUE of Point of Sale (PoS) transactions grew by 57 percent  quarter-on-quarter, QoQ, to N1.6 trillion in the third quarter of 2018, Q3’18, from N1.02 trillion in Q2’18, while    Nigerians opened 4.4 million bank accounts during same period. The new bank accounts opened during the quarter comprise 3.4 million savings accounts and 800,000 current accounts.

MANAGING Director and Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, has called on financial institutions and the three tiers of government to support agriculture and small and medium scale businesses to fast track the nation’s quest to move from poverty to prosperity.

The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has joined SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

We have come to the second section of this discussion on Wema Bank’s SME-focused credit facility. As a catch up on what was discussed in the first section which came in four parts, the key information was that the bank has special offers or services for small businesses. The offer, starts from opening of a special account called myBusinessAccount, categorized into three, viz, Bronze, Silver and Gold, with each carrying different requirements. We also discussed in our last week’s publication, the rewards attached to this special account.

Wema Bank Plc said it has entered into partnerships with Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to improve access to cheaper funds for small businesses in Nigeria, recently.

MTN Nigeria in collaboration with Google has empowered over 40 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with practical skills to implement effective digital marketing strategies in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of Phase3, a fibre optic infrastructure and telecommunications service provider, Mr. Stanley Jegede, has stressed that deployment of digitalized technology to drive ease of doing business framework will help Nigeria become more globally competitive.

SystemSpecs Limited has launched a platform, Remita SME Suite, to enable Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria manage their business – from funds collection to payments and payroll in a more convenient, data-driven and organised manner.

T is just as well that Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics, LADOL and Samsung Heavy Industries, SHI, have chosen to take their trade dispute to both the court of law and the court of public opinion. Given the importance of the partnership to the economic wellbeing of the nation and the profound implications for the success or otherwise of the much trumpeted technology transfer bid, this troubled partnership can only be ignored at our collective peril.

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has disclosed that over 200 foreign exhibitors from 16 countries will be exhibiting at the 2018 Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF).

The micro pension scheme will expand coverage of the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, to include self employed individuals such as artisans as well as employees of organizations with less than three people on their payroll.  This will form a major part of the government’s financial inclusion objectives.

NIGERIA’s agricultural   sector losses about N20 billion annually due to failure of insurance companies to create products to cover small farmers. Stakeholders in the agriculture sector stated this while speaking at the 2018 national insurance brokers’ conference and exhibition in Lagos, noting that the absence of insurance cover for smallholder farmers is part of the reason why livestock agriculture is not growing in Nigeria.

ACTING Director General of  the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, Ms. Mary Uduk has assured investors in the Capital Market that there is nothing to fear on the performance of the stock market as the 2019 election approaches. Uduk spoke while responding to questions from journalists on the sidelines of the just concluded World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings in Bali, Indonesia.