“As a caring and inclusive brand, FCMB will continue to empower individuals and communities by championing and executing initiatives that enrich the lives of Nigerians.” So declared FCMB sometime in February this year as it announced the award of a full scholarship to Fathia Dele Rasheed, the 7-year old schoolgirl who was spotted using lights from the ATM Gallery at its branch located along Ondo Road Akure, Ondo State, to do her homework.
The bank commended Dele’s determination, as well as that of other Nigerians like her, who aspire to a better life and are relentless in their pursuit of it. This brings out the brand persona of FCMB-“a caring and inclusive brand At a time when the country is looking towards the Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to help rebuild the economy devastated by COVID-19, the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has become an excellent role model of commitment to help grow the country’s GDP and create jobs. This is possible because of the commitment to entrepreneurship development and innovation. No wonder, FCMB and its Managing director Adam Nuru regularly attract honours and awards.
Of course, a commitment to innovation has always been at the heart of banking, and it has been instrumental to the continuous performance improvements countries have realized through efficiency and economic sustainability. This FCMB has been doing for a long time now.
Today, the FCMB)continues to encourage innovative and prudent measures to help SMEs do business better and keep vital operations possible. This is why the bank in collaboration with SystemSpecs Limited, launched a solution called “FCMB Payroll”, that is focused on aiding different aspects of business operation. This was in October this year.
In a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony held in Lagos, the bank said the product is a payroll solution, designed to meet the yearnings of thousands of its SME customers seeking more efficient, easy-to-use and affordable business tools to seamlessly operate their businesses. This, it was disclosed, will be very useful to individuals in business, small and medium enterprises as well as corporate organizations.
FCMB Payroll is a solution that comes with exciting features that enable SME owners to easily process payroll; pay employees’ salaries into commercial/micro-finance bank accounts or wallets and issue them regular pay slips.
To all staff of any customer or registered SME, this solution also over-rides collateral requirements, even without the traditional documentation to access loans from FCMB. The product enables these customers to easily maintain historical personal and payment records of all employees, including items such as their taxes, pensions and other possible transactions.
In that October during the launching Managing Director, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Adam Nuru, said the introduction of the FCMB Payroll initiative was in line with the commitment of the bank to grow the nation’s economy by providing SMEs with cutting-edge business tools to support their operations and help them build scale. Mr. Nuru further stated that, “we are excited to partner with SystemSpecs, a major solutions provider in the financial ecosystem to address some of the challenges confronting SMEs.
The FCMB Payroll platform has been designed to provide a more convenient and modern business tool for business owners and their employees.As a Bank that is consistently innovating to meet our increasingly dynamic customer base, we are confident that the FCMB Payroll initiative will go a long way to boost the operations of SMEs and improve their productivity”.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of SystemSpecs, John Obaro, said, “as an organisation, our aim is to continue to provide individuals and organisations with innovative tools to help them become more productive and take full charge of their operations. We are delighted at the opportunity to partner FCMB to extend our experience and expertise in payroll solutions to the Bank’s customers. We are convinced that FCMB Payroll would help SME customers improve their processes, maintain a satisfied workforce, boost margins and increase scale speedily.”
The FCMB Payroll”, is yet another part of FCMB commitments to SMEs in Nigeria, as it regularly FCMB supports capacity building programmefor SMEs, using its FCMB Training Academy which holds a yearly programme tagged ‘Business Enterprises and Sustainability Training (BEST) for SMEs, existing and start-ups which bring together many SMEs operators to participate in the annual training programme..
According to the bank, the rationale behind this capacity building programme is to lay a solid foundation for their long-term success. It will also enable entrepreneurs to have access to business management skills and advisory services, learn and acquire competencies which they can apply for effective management of their respective businesses in a sustainable manner.
Last year, the FCMB held the sixth edition of the BEST programme for existing and start-up SMEs held in Uyo, AkwaIbom State on June 8, 2019. Hundreds of existing and start-up entrepreneurs from the six states in the South-south zone took part and benefitted from the intensive training and empowerment exercise. This followed the huge success recorded at previous editions of the training across Nigeria since it commenced in 2018.
The initiative, led by FCMB Training Academy, the bank’s Business Banking Group and seasoned facilitators, focused on business and skills development, marketing, finance and accounting for SMEs. It covered various topical areas such as identifying business opportunities, surviving in a harsh business environment, improving productivity, raising capital, optimising sales, cost and revenue management, among others. It is one of the value-added offerings of FCMB to complement its efforts in the areas of lending and advisory services to SMEs with the objective of stimulating their growth and contributions to overall national development.
According to the Executive Director, Business Development of FCMB, Mrs. Bukola Smith, the Bank recognises the increasing role and impact of SMEs.
“The BEST initiative is one of the innovative ways we empower, promote and support the growth of our SME customers because without effective training and exposure, it could be quite difficult for their businesses to succeed. We believe this training will go a long way to impact positively on the SME operators who have participated in this programme. It will propel them to further develop themselves in order to compete favourably within and outside the Nigerian market. We, therefore, urge the beneficiaries to take advantage of the unique opportunities provided by this exercise, because it is a veritable platform for them to take the lead in driving the diversification and growth of the Nigerian economy”, she said.
Also speaking at that time, the Head, Training Academy of FCMB, Sola Oyegbade, stated that: “Just like the roots of a tree are responsible for the overall health and strength of the tree, FCMB BEST initiative has become a forum for feeding the SMEs with relevant resources to nurture and nourish their businesses profitably through tested and proven principles for capacity building, skills development and sustainability.
FCMB Training Academy is playing its part as a skillful gardener alongside other stakeholders to ensure the sustained health and continuous growth of all the SMEs that have subscribed and partnered with us in the BEST initiative”.
Besides the BEST capacity building programme, FCMB has other exciting cutting-edge offerings in the SMEs segment. The financial institution is one of the top participating Banks appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to drive the N220 billion Development Fund instituted by the apex regulatory institution to provide loans to SMEs. In addition, the Bank offers free banking transactions for a period of three months to new its SME customers.
SheVentures is also another value-added initiative from FCMB. It is designed for women-owned SMEs. The purpose is to provide enhanced support to existing and upcoming women-owned SMEs through access to finance, training and mentoring to boost their business in a sustainable manner. SheVentures which also comes with the unique benefit of zero-interest rate for an initial period of three months, is anchored on a unique selling proposition of ”Be You”, which means confidence, independence and the courage required by women to fulfill their aspirations. At the launch of the initiative in March this year, some women SME operators received loans ranging from N500,000.00 to N5,000,000.00.
Apart from these iniatives on SMEs sub-sector of the economy, FCMB has also been catering to the youthful segment of the population who are more technology-proficient than their predecessors, through various digital engagement which include the following:
· Flexx zone with over 130,000 visits and Flexx Mobile App with 17,329 users.
· Dare to Dream talent hunt in 10 campuses and over 15,000 participants in the three-year span.
· Flexx your creativity that had close to 20,000 digital reaches; this was a digital showcasing of their creative art.
· Flexxtern in partnership with Lagos State Government, corporate and SMEs, providing internship opportunities to youth in structured organisations.
· YEEP- Youth Entrepreneurship Programme for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), with the participation of over 20,000 corps members in the last two years.
·Youth Entrepreneurship Masterclass which has provided the opportunity for young entrepreneurship to acquire more knowledge and mentorship in various field.
· National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) camp engagement in at least 20 states for the last four years reaching more than 300,0000 corps members in orientation camps.
· Weekly campus activation to engage young people in different institution of learning on the need to save during and after school. This provides an opportunity for financial inclusion and enlightenment.
All these initiatives tend to show that “Youths have pushed FCMB to innovate ahead of competitors”, as being claimed by some.
As all these programmes roll on, there is an increased publicinterest in FCMB for what it has to offer to the public in terms of products offerings and services .
Why is FCMB going so strong at this time? This due to the work of its managing director, MrNuru, a seasoned banker appointed in 2017.With about 30 years banking experience covering Corporate Finance, Consumer Banking, Public Sector, Treasury, Commercial/Retail Banking and Human Resources Management, Nuru is a banking guru. He began his career at the Nigerian Agricultural & Cooperative Bank. He also worked at Oceanic Bank and FSB International Bank (Now Fidelity Bank), where he headed Public Sector, later Retail Banking (Lagos), and eventually Human Resources Management Group. He joined FCMB in 2005 as Head of Enterprise Management overseeing Human Resources, Administration & Logistics and Branch Development.
In 2009, he left FCMB to joinFinBankPlc as Executive Director, North Nigeria. Three years later, he rejoined FCMB as Executive Director Abuja & North Nigeria, following the merger of FCMB and FinBank in 2012.
The bank’s board knew his capacity. Hence he was appointed in recognition of his ability to bring strong and decisive leadership to the banking institution at this time. And ever since, he has taken the banking brand higher up the ladder both in visibility and the consciousness of the people. No wonder, the bank continues to win awards after awards.
In 2018, FCMB was rated as the 3rd most customer-focused Bank by KPMG, a leading international consulting firm, in the Banking Industry Customer Satisfaction Survey (BICSS), among other national and international recognitions and awards.
In 2019, FCMB bagged ”Excellence in Customer Experience Enhancement”, on the Bank at the Finnovex West Africa Awards,. The award held on October 22, 2019 in Lagos. In addition, the Managing Director of the Bank, Mr. Adam Nuru, emerged as the CEO of the year. They were elected to the positions after a survey conducted by the organisers of the award which involved Banks’ customers.
Thus under the watch of Adam Nuru, FCMB, as an inclusive lender, has continued to dictate the pace and expand its channels. The Bank is known for providing one of the fastest, secure, convenient and seamless alternate channel banking platforms cutting across Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), Point of Sales (PoS), mobile, internet banking, among others
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