In line with its commitment towards improving the capacity of businesses playing in the FMCG distributive trade sector in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, organized a distributors’ forum for the key distributors of BUA Foods that are operating within and around Kano and Kaduna states.
The interactive capacity building and engagement session which took place at the Grand Central Hotel, Kano had in attendance the distributors of BUA Foods from the two states, as well as representatives of the sales and management teams of Fidelity Bank Plc and BUA Foods.
Welcoming the distributors to the event, the Executive Director, North Directorate at Fidelity Bank PLC, Hassan Imam, who was represented by the Regional Bank Head, Northwest I Regional Bank, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mannir Ringim, stressed the importance of distributors in the Nigerian economy and the key role that they play in the movement of products and services in Nigeria and across the world, ensuring that they are delivered seamlessly from the manufacturers or producers to the end users. He also touched on Fidelity Bank’s established support for players in the distributive trade sector and the various tailored structures, products and services that the bank has instituted to support the growth of these players on a sustainable note.
In his keynote address, the guest facilitator at the event, Dr. Akin-Olusoji Akinyele, who is a small business advisor and economic policy expert, advised the distributors on key strategies they can employ to manage key macroeconomic challenges impacting players in the distributive trade area, the various funding options they can explore to expand their businesses and key strategies they can adopt to manage succession planning for their businesses.
Also speaking at the event, the Divisional Head, Partnerships and Ecosystems Division at Fidelity Bank PLC, Osaigbovo Omorogbe, reiterated the bank’s long running experience in banking players in the value chains of large FMCG corporates and emphasized the bank’s strong commitment to providing all-round banking support to them, particularly distributors, with its suite of tailored digital payments and collections platforms, financing products and advisory support services which are targeted at helping the distributors grow their businesses in the short, medium and long terms.
According to Omorogbe, “We have helped tens of thousands of distributors across the country such as you, grow their businesses with tailored low cost transactions platforms such as the Fidelity Small Business Account (FSBA) that’s maintenance-charge-free (terms and conditions apply), low-cost digital collections and payments platforms that assure payments and collections seamlessness, financing packages that are also low cost and flexible as regards collateral requirements and relevant advisory support that’s free and focused on deepening your capacity for business success.”
The distributors’ forum for the key distributors of BUA Foods in Kano and Kaduna states is the first in the series of similar capacity building and engagement events that Fidelity Bank Plc has put together for the 2022 financial year, for leading players in the FMCG distributive trade sector nationwide.
Fidelity Bank is a full-fledged commercial bank operating in Nigeria with over 6.5 million customers serviced across its 250 business offices and digital banking channels. The bank was recently recognized as the Best SME Bank in Nigeria in 2022 by the Global Banking & Finance Awards. The bank has also won awards for the “Fastest Growing Bank” and “MSME & Entrepreneurship Financing Bank of the Year” at the 2021 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.
