17 JUNE, 2016-Consistent with its thought leadership position and as part of its commitment to drive growth and develop capacity in the SME segment, Ibukun Awosika, chairman, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, will play host to over 50 technology firms at the FirstBank Tech Startup Conference, tagged “Let’s Talk Tech,” scheduled to hold on June 21.
The conference will convene a panel of speakers – comprising of senior bank executives and other sector experts, to discuss and engage with the audience on wide ranging issues specific to the tech sector as well as share ideas on the best ways of harnessing information and communications technology to lower operating costs and create new business opportunities within the economy
According to Adesola Adeduntan, managing director/CEO, First Bank of Nigeria and Subsidiaries, “FirstBank as a nation builder, is an enthusiastic follower and supporter of the new inventive energy spreading across Nigeria. We strongly believe that in the near future, these companies will employ a significantly sizeable portion of the labour force while making a healthy contribution to the Nation’s GDP. “We will continue our culture of collaborating and supporting this community with the ultimate objective of creating a system that will foster strategic collaboration within the ecosystem so as to push growth rates in this sector into hyper drive.”
He further stated that the current macroeconomic environment offers greater opportunities for Banks and Tech Startups to collaborate with one another in driving business growth through the development of customer-focused and attractive value propositions.
The conference keynote address will be delivered by Ibukun Awosika, chairman, FirstBank, and would be joined by other speakers and panellists like Yemi Kale, statistician general of the National Bureau of Statistics; Adesola Adeduntan, MD/CEO, FirstBank and Subsidiaries; Jason Njoku of IrokoTV; Obinna Ekezie of Wakanow, and Ebi Atawodi of Uber, among host of Tech entrepreneurs.
Given the growth of the SME sector and their role in economic expansion and sustainable national development, FirstBank berthed the multi-pronged SME support programme to chart a veritable course for SME development in a new and reinvigorated era, emphasising boundless opportunities for entrepreneurial business development.
