Heritage Bank CEO Advocates Strategy For Building Next Generation Of African Corporates

Managing Director/Chief Executive
Officer of Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo

Concerted promotion and protection of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through the establishment of a solid framework supported by clearly articulated government policy is the first step in creating an active SME sector that could spearhead the much needed revolution Nigeria and indeed Africa urgently requires in the area of building the Next Generation of African Corporates.

This was a major submission of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, who was a guest Speaker at the 2nd US-Africa Trade & Investment Forum/Africa Investment & Development Awards which took place on 25th September 2013 at St. Regis Hotel, New York, USA where he was selected to speak as an authority on "Small & Medium Enterprise Funding in Africa - a banker's experience", on account of what the organizers described as the outstanding efforts of the new Heritage Bank in the area of SME Banking in Nigeria.

The Heritage Bank helmsman observed that in Sub-Saharan Africa, SMEs are more credit-constrained and this typically affects growth possibilities as significantly low number of start ups who apply for financing actually succeed. Studies, he noted, indicate that more than 70% of the SMEs lack access to medium-longer-term finance, creating an SME funding gap of more than $140 billion in Africa alone.