First Bank teams up with CDC to support women and small businesses in Nigeria

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria's primary and leading financial inclusion services provider, has announced a US$100 million finance facility with CDC Group, the UK Government's development finance organization. This additional investment will go to women-owned and led firms in Nigeria, as well as local small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

The agreement would enable FirstBank to provide financial solutions that help underbanked and underserved communities in the country overcome their lack of access to finance. A minimum of $30 million will be granted in the form of credit lines to women entrepreneurs as part of the new investment.

Through the credit facility FirstBank will:

·        Bolster its commitment to gender financing by assigning $30 million for women-owned and managed enterprises.

·        Provide funding to local SMEs to encourage and promote financial and social inclusion in Nigeria.

The facility boosts the CDC's commitment to the 2X Challenge by $100 million. According to FirstBank The deal is subject to regulatory approval. It will also complement FirstBank's 'FirstGem' gender-focused services offering, which aims to improve lending and support for female clients in order to promote gender inclusiveness.

” Beyond the mutual benefits this partnership offers to both organizations, it is also an opportunity to contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth of Nigeria. At FirstBank, financial inclusion is material to us and we remain committed to enabling SMEs; leveraging our heritage of over 127 years with experience and continuous reinvention to empower women-owned and women-led businesses,” Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank.

Other Sustainable Development Goals are made possible by financial inclusion. People who have access to financial services may invest in their enterprises, their education, and their health; farmers can produce more, and women are more empowered. As a result, we are careful in our efforts to create possibilities for access to finance, which is vital to the growth and sustainability of enterprises, particularly among the country's underbanked and underserved communities.

The new alliance between CDC and FirstBank, which will be rebranded British International Investment in April, reflects a common purpose to promote Nigeria's long-term, productive, and equitable growth.

“Promoting financial inclusion is a key component for advancing sweeping productive and sustainable growth across both rural and urban areas in Nigeria. This investment will channel CDC’s flexible and long-term capital toward expanding the financial solutions made available to women entrepreneurs, who are often the drivers of small business ideas and services to their communities,” Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive of CDC Group. “Our commitment demonstrates a deepening of British partnership with Nigeria’s businesses, as we collaborate to unlock the potential for entrepreneurial success and economic growth across the country.”

In addition, CDC/BII will provide technical assistance to FirstBank, enhancing the bank's technical capabilities and ability to reinforce its commitment to gender-based initiatives by building on the bank's knowledge base of the women-led and -owned enterprises in its portfolio. This will allow the Bank to better leverage the Facility to offer critical capital to scale business growth across Nigeria's market, resulting in more job creation and improved livelihoods.

The facility's goal of increasing financial inclusion and opportunity for women qualifies it for the G7's 2x Challenge, which commits the G7's development finance institutions (DFIs) to mobilize money to boost women's economic empowerment in emerging economies.