chidi Nduka Aja

L-R: President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) Abosede Debola Osibogun; Wife, Managing Director/CEO, Skye Bank Plc, Bolanle Oguntayo; former Miss Nigeria, Helen Ajayi; Managing Director/CEO, Skye Bank Plc, Timothy Oguntayo and representative of the former first lady Lagos State, Abiodun  Opeifa at the official launch of Skye Pearl by Skye Bank at Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos As part of its financial inclusion drive, Skye Bank has launched the “Skye Pearl”  initiative to help its female customers unlock their potential.   The  initiative which was unveiled at the weekend, is a platform that offers series of benefits to sit-at-home mothers, professionals and women-owned SMEs, by offering them a chance to grow and expand their wealth through partnership, relationship, access to finance, information, networking, mentoring and empowerment initiative. Speaking at the launch of the initiative, ...

Clear business model or concept to be captured in the business plan, clear marketing and sales strategy, competent and experienced management, clear competitive advantage and strong financials have been identified as key remedies to the challenge of access to finance faced by SMEs. Aku Odinkemelu, executive director, South, Fidelity Bank Plc, made the assertion at the bank’s maiden edition of the regional conference for the South-East region, themed ‘ Positioning SMEs for Growth in the South-East Region ’ recently. Odinkemelu, who was the lead discussant on the panel discussion session on ‘Overcoming Barriers to Funding’, said that SMEs in Nigeria are confronted with key challenges of low-levels of business management and finance. She identified the key challenges to include p oor managerial/entrepreneurial skills and inadequate business processes; inadequate research/market information to determine business viability; poor access to market; limited access to the expor...

In the coming weeks, Fidelity Bank Plc will be launching the GreenMall, an online market place with fully integrated e-commerce capabilities for online payment engine, delivery logistics, advertising boards, and business networking opportunities, etc. for SMEs. This was disclosed by Aku Odinkemelu, executive director, South, Fidelity Bank Plc, at the bank’s South-East Regional SME Conference recently. Odinkemelu, who was the lead discussant on the panel discussion session on ‘Overcoming Barriers to Funding’, said the numbers of SMEs in Nigeria has increased from 17m in 2011 to 37m by 2013 and employs 60 – 80% of the workforce while contributing over   60% of the GDP. She lamented that SMEs in Nigeria are faced with key challenges. These challenges, she enumerated to include, low levels of business management capacity which has to do with p oor managerial/entrepreneurial skills and inadequate business processes; inadequate research/market information to determine busine...

Microsoft Corp has begun the release of Office 2016 even as it announced new and enhanced Office 365 services built for team productivity.   Office 2016 apps are the latest addition to Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based subscription service that helps people do their best work, together.   “The way people work has changed dramatically, and that’s why Microsoft is focused on reinventing productivity and business processes for the mobile-first, cloud-first world,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “These latest innovations take another big step forward in transforming Office from a familiar set of individual productivity apps to a connected set of apps and services designed for modern working, collaboration and teamwork , ” Nadella added. Office 2016 delivers new versions of the Office desktop apps for Windows, including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Project, Visio and Access. By subscribing to Office 365, customers can ...