9 Payment Service Bank (9PSB), Nigeria’s digital payment service bank focused on financial inclusion, has reiterated its support to Nigerian women entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) through its agent banking business opportunities.

At the 2024 South-West Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Emerging Market Summit and Expo, it said the opportunity will scale up their revenue base and improve their standard of living

The event, with the theme, ‘Women Entrepreneur as Catalyst for Sustainable Development and Economic Growth,’ held at the Lagos State Cooperative Federation (LASCOFED), aimed at training and empowering over 500 women participants on entrepreneurship skills and fostering market link and economic growth.

It had in attendance women entrepreneurs and SME owners across the South-West region who have been using their skills and resources to make purpose-driven contributions to the society.

Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, 9PSB, Branka Mracajac, represented by the Head of Sales Distribution and Strategic Partners, 9PSB, Kunle Isiaka, commended the women for their resilience and viable contributions to their communities through various initiatives and businesses.

He said, “I am indeed very thrilled to see these amazons who have been breaking all barriers without limitation in all strata of the society. Women are truly the bedrock of the society; when a woman is trained, a nation is of course trained. We cannot overemphasize the need for the women to be financially included, empowered and given the required support to thrive.

“It is understood that a reasonable number of the women folks lack the basic financial knowledge and many are financially excluded from the formal financial system. This has impacted, to an extent, their means of doing business.”

A report by EFInA states that at least 38 million (36 percent) of Nigerian adults still do not have a bank account but majority of them have phones. It also shows that four out of every 10 Nigerians are financially excluded and they are mostly females.

In Lagos State, there are at least eight million adults, 18 years and above who live in Lagos and more influents daily. Out of this number, 54 percent of adults are business owners or traders and 28 percent of them receive payment digitally. With this statistics, 9PSB is working and consolidating on these areas.

Isiaka said, “In addition, 91 percent of Lagos adult females are currently financially served. Six percent of women in Lagos have access to credit facility, while we focus on the eight percent excluded Lagosian. Although our license does not permit us yet to give out loans, but we are doing everything possible to ensure we support the women through our agent banking training geared towards women empowerment.

“As a bank providing services to the banked and underbanked, we dwell on strategic partnership with other players in the industry because we cannot do it all alone, we have the mandate to drive financial inclusion and ensure that every household is financially included. Also, a robust agent network spreading across the country to facilitate financial transactions has been of tremendous progress.

“We have empowered over 18,000 agents out of which over 45 percent of them are women. As we make progress in this journey, our service location partners will continue to engage you at your various locations with necessary support to thrive as a merchant in the payment services industry.”

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