Sterling Bank, Leap Africa to Empower Entrepreneurs

Nume Ekeghe

As part of its contribution to support entrepreneurs, Sterling Bank in partnership with Leap Africa, a non-governmental organisation would empower entrepreneurs at the 11th edition of the CEOs Forum through capacity building.
The forum is aimed at discussing how small businesses can attract funding for sustainable growth.

Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos yesterday, the Executive Director, Finance and Strategy, Sterling Bank, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, reiterated the importance of SMEs to a growing economy, adding that sterling was committed to driving this growth through capacity building.

He also said one of the reasons why most entrepreneurs are not able to get funding to grow their businesses was because of inadequate documentation.

He added: “What we have been doing is focusing on training entrepreneurs to understand the value of documenting what they do. For me, taking this approach of bringing different funding options to the table and hopefully by the end of this event they would be able to see the step by step process to which they would approach.”

He commended Leap Africa for taking the initiative of enlightening entrepreneurs on how to attract funds and investors.
On her part, Executive Director, LEAP Africa, Mrs. Iyadunni Olubode, said: “We realised that a lot of entrepreneurs we interact with, are looking for opportunities to grow and expand their business. And if any business is to be sustainable, it needs to be infused with capital from time to time.

“So we are bringing together, a team of experts, a team of entrepreneurs who themselves have been able to expand their businesses to come and share the wealth of their knowledge with the audience. They would share their experiences, failures and were they succeeded with raising capital.”

She added: “We are looking forward to a fantastic event; we have fantastic speakers who are experts in their respective fields. We are looking at the whole range of financing options from angel investors; we have speakers who would talk on venture capital and private equity and challenge funds.”