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Monday, July 27, 2020 / 09:40AM / Firstbank /Header
Image Credit: Firstbank
First
Bank of Nigeria Limited has offered to give financial support to Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs In Education Sector) to cushion the effects of the
COVID -19 pandemic. Mr. Bankole Adediran, Head, Transaction Banking Products,
FirstBank, made this known at the Bank's SMEConnect webinar with theme: "Managing Your School through the Pandemic: Engagement and Retention
Strategies".
Adediran
said that the Bank was ready to partner with SMEs in the education sector
through the period of the novel coronavirus pandemic to sustain their
businesses.
"FirstBank,
as an institution, is very passionate about education, and will continue to
support the sector," he said.
He
said that the Bank would continue to reinforce its leading role at enabling the
growth of the educational sector in the country.
Adediran
said that the Bank had an array of financial products that could be accessed by
SMEs in the educational sector in the period of COVID -19.
He
said SMEs in the sector could key into FirstEdu Loan targeted at private nursery,
primary and secondary schools to assist the schools in achieving their desired
growth in medium and long terms.
According
to him, the product provides funding advancement of up to N20 million for
schools with a minimum of 100 students with school fees collection domiciled at
FirstBank.
Adediran
said that, with the product, school owners/proprietors could stay ahead to make
learning easy and conducive for students.
He
said the Bank had launched various interventions and initiatives to support the
sector to navigate through challenges occasioned by COVID -19.
He
noted that FirstBank recently launched an e-learning initiative aimed at
reaching out to one million students across the country to ensure they would be
academically engaged while at home.
Adediran
also said that the Bank supported 10 universities and three secondary schools
across the country with major infrastructure projects.
He
added that the Bank donated 20,000 e-learning devices to the Lagos State
Government to promote online learning for students in the public schools.
Adediran
urged schools must learn from the COVID -19 pandemic by embracing automation to
plug leakages in the sector.
Mrs.
Folasade Adefisayo, Commissioner for Education, Lagos State, who was a panelist
at the webinar, commended the Bank for donating 20,000 devices with six months
data, to the state for e-learning.
Adefisayo
said the state reached out to many companies for support at the wake of the
pandemic and that FirstBank came to its aid.
She
disclosed that all the schools were not prepared for the situation, noting that
most children in public schools did not have device and data for online
learning.
"This
pandemic has been a terrible thing, and one lesson from it is that we have not
invested enough in solutions we can deplore at a time like this," Adefisayo
said.
She
said that the pandemic had forced Nigerians to be more creative and innovative,
adding that schooling would no longer be the same again.
Adefisayo
called on teachers to change their teaching and learning strategies, saying
that COVID -19 had changed learning.
Also,
Dr. Yomi Otubela, President, National Association of Proprietors of Private
Schools (NAPPS), said the association had responded greatly by interfacing
between government and its agencies since the beginning of the pandemic.
Otubela
said the Central Bank of Nigeria was working out modalities for palliatives for
schools and teachers who had not been receiving salaries since the pandemic
started.
He
noted that there had been an increase in rape, kidnapping and robbery as a
result of COVID -19.
Mr.
Wale Abioye, Team Lead, Customer Practice in Management Consulting (KPMG), said
the pandemic had impacted negatively on many sectors of the economy, especially
education.
Abioye
highlighted some of the negative impacts of the pandemic to include
financial/economic, structural, social and policy challenges.
He
said many SMEs in the educational sector could be out of business due to the
pandemic, thereby increasing unemployment rate.
Mr.
Babatunde Vaughan, Education Lead, Modern Classroom, Microsoft Nigeria, said
the company had introduced a lot of products to make online learning easy and
interesting.
"COVID
-19 is a very unique period for everyone, change has come and we will continue
to experience change.
"We
must be more proactive than reactive," Vaughan urged.
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