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Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo, has advised that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and agricultural initiatives be supported.
He made a call on financial institutions and the three tiers of government as this support may be the solution to the long embarked quest to move the country from poverty to prosperity.
Citing the progress of Heritage Bank and their involvement in supporting SMEs’ development, Sekibo spoke on the sidelines of the just concluded 24th Nigerian Economic Summit, co-sponsored by his bank, with the theme: “Poverty to Prosperity: Making Governance and Institutions Work”
He advised the government as well as financial institutions to do more in the areas of entrepreneurship as it is an agent of development.
Sekibo, who is also the Managing Director of the bank also said there were evidences to prove that countries that supports Micro, Small and Medium enterprises have always emerged successful in reducing poverty.
“We in Heritage Bank have been supporting various small scale businesses especially through our reality show, “The Next Titan”, which is driven by our faith to give young entrepreneurs the opportunity to contribute to the economic growth of the country, he said.
“One of our major cardinal point as a bank is supporting micro, small and medium scale businesses and our strong desire to see young men and women succeed in any area of their business. This will help the society and economy to grow, thereby moving the nation from poverty to prosperity.
“We cannot talk about moving from poverty to prosperity without taking Agriculture every seriously in this country. We must support the agriculture sector reform through providing infrastructure, providing loans to farmers and ensuring interest rate loans is a single digit.
“Moving Nigeria out of poverty to Prosperity cannot be done alone by the government and financial institutions, all other sectors must contribute their quota to ensure Nigeria is rid of poverty,” the managing director advised.