Marketing matters
With NETA NWOSU
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•Lands in Ikotun, Lagos
SKYE Bank is continuing in its bid to turn more lives around as well as influence their savings culture. Through its ‘Reach for the Skye’ reward scheme promo. the bank recently took the successful promo scheme to the popular Tama Spot, Ikotun Main Market in Lagos.
According to Skye Bank, the scheme has been put in place to build a long-lasting relationship with its customers, encouraging them to save, and rewarding them for their commitment through the ‘Reach for the Skye Millionaire’ Reward Scheme.
The Skye Reward Scheme, which is in its tenth month, has consistently increased awareness of savings culture, while acting as a platform for some Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) owners to expand their businesses. The last edition of the draw brings the numbers of millionaires to 30 in the ongoing promo, with winners emerging from different parts of Nigeria.
Speaking on the scheme, Group Head, Retail Banking, Skye Bank Plc., Nkolika Okoli, said the Reach for the Skye Millionaire Scheme is part of the bank’s strategy to encourage customers to cultivate the art of saving and also give back to the society for their loyalty to the bank.
Explaining the bank’s commitment to bringing more people into the banking system, Okoli stated: “As a retail focused Bank, Skye Bank is interested in impacting every neighborhood where it does business and seeing our customers get a turnaround, both as individuals and as businesses. This is why we are using this platform to encourage our customers to imbibe a savings culture as well as achieve their financial goals. To put it simply, we are rewarding customers for saving their money with us and hopefully building a long term trusting relationship.”
At the last event, which held in Ikotun, Job Abiona Fatunbi from Ogudu Branch of the bank emerged as a winner in the one million naira category.
Speaking on his winning, Fatunbi said: “I have been following this draw religiously, adding multiples of two thousand naira monthly. Assuming I didn’t win, I would have thought it was fraud; so I must commend the bank on such initiative, it is really a fantastic one, and I am very happy to be a winner.”
Through its ‘Reach for the Skye Millionaire’ reward scheme, Skye Bank plans to give away N60 million naira during the course of one year to customers, who operate the Skye Save Plus and Skye Ease accounts and maintain minimum credit balances of N2,000 on an incremental basis. The reward is still ongoing with several millions up for grabs.
Economic growth dependent on SME –Segun Agbaje, MD/CEO, GTB
…Empowers female entrepreneurs in Africa
ONE of Africa’s leading financial institutions, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc., has partnered with African-focused entrepreneurship accelerator, She Leads Africa (SLA), and the Work in Progress! Alliance (Oxfam and VC4Africa) to launch the She Leads Africa Accelerator, a three-month programme designed to identify, support and fund the next generation of Nigeria’s brightest female entrepreneurs.
The initiative, which is a new inclusion to the bouquet of mentorship sessions created by She Leads Africa, is geared towards shining a light on women, who are driving Africa’s growth through leadership, commerce and innovation. The event presents a veritable platform for young female entrepreneurs to acquire basic business skills and grow their businesses. In this year’s edition, participants will compete for N2,000,000 in cash prizes, media features in international news outlets, access to online resources and exclusive meetings with top investors
The three-month SLA Accelerator will feature a week’s residency programme for budding entrepreneurs to acquire basic business skills with a key focus on growth, marketing and distribution. Upon completing the residency programme, the participants will undergo a three-week practical session to enable them implement their skills. The climax of the event will be a Demo Day where participants can pitch to domestic and international investors for a N2,000,000 cash prize.
For the third year running, GTBank has continued in its support for SMEs and empowerment of budding entrepreneurs, such as Charae Robinson, CEO of Tastemakers Africa, and Kasope Oladipo-Ajayi, CEO of OmoAlata Foods, who emerged respective winners of the 2014 and 2015 editions of the She Leads Africa pitch
According to Mr. Yasmin Belo-Osagie, co-founder of SLA, “We are delighted to be working with international partners, such as GTBank and the Work in Progress! Alliance team in this year’s edition. GTBank has remained our lead sponsor for the last two years and we are excited to extend this partnership for a third year.” He further stated that “GTBank’s continued support for SLA as well as their innovative platforms, such as SME MarketHub, attests to their commitment to support SMEs in Nigeria.”
Speaking at the launch of the event, Mr. Segun Agbaje, the Managing Director/CEO of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. said: “The economic growth and development of our continent is largely dependent on how much we empower our women and invest in Small and Medium Enterprises. It is for this reason that we have created the SME MarketHub platform to fulfil the twin objective of facilitating the growth of small businesses and creating a unique platform for female entrepreneurs to thrive.”
Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. is one of the few Nigerian financial institutions that have maintained a defined Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy since its inception in 1990 and actively supports numerous programmes across Africa.