Heritage Bank restates commitment to corporate business segment in Nigeria

Heritage Bank Limited has said it will continue to support the corporate business segment of the Nigerian economy despite the challenging economic situation of the country.

The Bank maintains that it is committed to delivering distinctive financial services in terms of deposits and lending to its customers even in these hard times.

Delivering a keynote address on the occasion of the Institute of Credit Administrators of (ICA) credit industry awards 2016, Managng Director/Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo said the importance of corporate businesses in the country cannot be overemphasized.

“We at Heritage Bank are aware of the great impact of supporting corporate businesses and will keep rendering our top notch services to both small and large corporate entities,” stated.

According to Sekibo, apart from the fact that it significantly contributes to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it also decreases the rate of unemployment which is the major cause of corruption and robbery.

The bank’s experience, he added, has shown that corporate organisations in Nigeria are desirous of partnering with financiers with insight into the workings of modern finance as many of these companies continue to seek more cost efficient ways of leveraging their balance for profit without necessarily relying on traditional bank borrowings.

“Many of these companies have partnered with Heritage Bank because of our cash management and electronic solutions which reduced operational cost.

Stressing that advisory services also remain a strong point of attraction in dealing with Heritage Bank, the bank’s boss reiterated that the bank recently advised a telecommunications operator in securing a $40 million equity towards increasing its working capital.

“The bank’s investment banking team was able to work with this start up to secure this funding because the bank advised on its capital structure and exposed this customer to its international alliances which culminated in securing the investment. In addition to this, the bank has also supported a start-up 4G LTE telecommunications operator with current asset of over N200 billion.”

The Telco according to Sekibo, is currently doing well and rapidly spreading its network across the country. These vividly show that Heritage Bank occupies a large space in supporting the telecommunication sector in Nigeria he stated.

The power generation capacity available in Nigeria is far below the estimated growing demand for electricity which led to the various reforms of the electricity market. Development of infrastructure that will lead to the growth of various sectors of the home grown businesses have also been one of the strong reasons, the Bank keyed into the reforms proposed by the government and financed various Independent Power Producers (IPPs) nationwide Sekibo further observed. These Gencos have been successful in providing critical services to their areas of domain.

“We have also seen the emergence of major corporate players in the agricultural sector. The agricultural value chain is robust and is an untapped treasure. The bank has demonstrated support across the value chain of agriculture and also various level of farming (small holder farming and large scale).

“Heritage Bank’s passion for agriculture is supported by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria for various interventions schemes which include provision of funds capped at nine per cent (All charges inclusive) and also by providing guarantee to Commercial Bank which serves as risk sharing. The Central Bank of Nigeria has designed schemes such as Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) which large scale farmers can access up to N2 billion in single digit interest loans.

Heritage Bank is a leading Nigerian bank with an excellent service culture hinged on working with each customer to create a name and heritage for today and for future generations. With the ideals of service, performance, respect, integrity, innovation, tenacity and excellence forming our core values, we have set out to redefine the concept of banking for the quintessential customer.