Ecobank Nigeria has been named 2014 SME excellence award winner at the ‘Nigerian SME Awards.’
The event was hosted by the SME Business Platform.

The SME Business Platform is a capacity building forum for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.
Receiving the award on behalf of the bank, Head, SME and Value Chain Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Sunkanmi Olowo, thanked the organisers for recognising the bank.

According to Olowo, access to finance has been identified as a key growth factor in the development of MSMEs globally.
He reiterated that MSMEs are known to be the major drivers of economies around the world and it is on this premise that Ecobank based its commitment to financing and supporting this budding sector in Nigeria.

According to Olowo, Ecobank is the bank of choice in Nigeria for MSME’s financing. He said this year alone, the bank has embarked on various initiatives that support aggressive growth in some key sectors that includes agriculture, import business finance, amongst others.
On how Ecobank relates with the MSMEs, Mr. Olowo said Ecobank had adopted a “risk sharing asset creation,” that enables the “financing of businesses with less stringent collateral requirements; renewable energy financing for which Ecobank is currently the pioneer bank in the country.

“The bank had initiated in collaboration with the USAID, UNDP and several other multilateral organisations various schemes to develop the renewable energy sector.”