60,000 benefit from N200bn loans – Diamond Bank

The Regional Manager, Diamond Bank Plc, Ibadan, Mr. Oluropo Olanrewaju, says the bank has granted about N200bn loans to 60,000 Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises under its BusinessXpress account.



Olanrewaju made this known at the 50th edition of the bank’s seminar held in Ibadan for operators of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

He said the seminar had provided stakeholders with the requisite knowledge and necessary skills to help them to expand their businesses.

Olanrewaju said, “The seminars are very key to our strategic objective of helping small businesses grow. In 2009, we launched the BusinessXpress account, the first of its kind, which not only offered collateral-free loans to the SME operators but also charged negligible COT. However, we realised that providing funds to the SMEs was just the first step. There was also the need to equip them with the skills and knowledge to manage and grow their businesses so we started the seminars in 2010.”

The spokesman for the bank, Ayona Trimnell, said that the seminar was the bank’s customised training initiative aimed at building and strengthening capacity among new as well as established business owners.

He also said that the training was in line with the bank’s policy to develop a productive capacity that could compete on the global scale.

“The bank is not just eager to provide funds for operators, we are also passionate about building the capacity that could boost economic production and provide employment at the micro, small and medium-scale sub-sector,” he said.T