SMEDAN, Sterling Bank to Create Nigeria’s Largest SME Database

Nume Ekeghe

Sterling Bank Plc, has signed an agreement with the Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to establish a comprehensive database of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria.

The bank noted that this will help in scaling intervention programs and providing tailored solutions that truly contribute to the growth of SMEs.

The signing ceremony took place in Lagos, where the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, expressed his optimism about the collaboration. 

He stressed the significance of authentic partnerships that arise from opportunities rather than regulations noting their tendency to produce favourable results.

He considered this particular venture as a promising endeavour of this nature, emphasizing that external regulatory pressure did not play a role in compelling their cooperation. 

Director General of SMEDAN, Mr Olawale Fasanya expressed his appreciation for the bank’s initiative and highlighted the MoU’s immense value to SMEDAN’s operations. Fasanya stressed the criticality of data to their activities, citing their recent online registration of SMEs. Despite registering approximately 3.8 million SMEs through this initiative, the data still requires cleaning.

Fasanya emphasized that the availability of accurate data would enable SMEDAN to connect SMEs operating within the same market.

Chief Product Officer at Sterling Bank, Mustapha Otaru, described the bank’s approach to managing SMEs as an ecosystem and emphasised the federal government’s importance of collaboration with SMEDAN. He acknowledged that progress is impossible without such partnerships.

The Head of SME Products at Sterling Bank, Bolanle Tyson, underscored the integral role of SMEs in economic growth.