Polaris bank commended for capacity building, empowerment initiative

By Ugochukwu Ezurike

A frontline Nigeria bank, Polaris Bank and social media giant Facebook have been commended by participants at the recently concluded business owners capacity building programme, organised for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) for affording them the opportunity to acquire new skills on how to grow their businesses and leveraging technology advancement.

In fulfilment of the Bank’s commitment to empower Nigerian SMEs, it designed the virtual digital marketing seminar  workshop to help them explore and learn new ways to grow their businesses, especially in the era of COVID-19 pandemic, which has further emphasized the need for digitization of business processes, over 5000 SMEs  participated in the phase 1 and 2 that ran for days in each session.

The seminar sessions dwelt on how to build an online presence with Facebook, the discovery of tools to drive business, systemic ways on how to find customers on Instagram, and subsequently information on how to Create Facebook Adverts.

The Group Head, Products and Market Development of Polaris Bank, Mrs. Adebimpe Ihekuna, while commenting on the benefits of the empowerment programme, stated that the Bank’s move was to equip SMEs on how to leverage social media tools to generate marketing leads and sales. She however said, “The free empowerment training and partnership is part of Polaris Bank’s effort to contribute to driving SMEs businesses in the digital space.”

Adebimpe further noted, “For SMEs to remain relevant in their line of business, Entrepreneurs must position to level up with the challenges of the digital world to scale to the next level”.

Speaking also, the founder/CEO at DIGIVATE 360, Segun Oyetunji, partner to the Bank on the “Boost With Facebook Programme” spoke of his delight about the on-going success of the partnership with Polaris Bank on boosting the digital capacity of SMEs in Nigeria over the years. “We are immensely grateful to Polaris Bank for the opportunity to collaborate!”

After a successful seminar, some of the participants, as  Mr. Adedeji Adewale, a detergent manufacturer from Akure, Ondo State, glowingly commended polaris Bank. He revealed that the wealth of knowledge provided during the training is comprehensive enough to understand the dynamics of digital business”. He called for more opportunities to have digital marketing trainings as this..

Kadiri Mohammed, another participant who owns his business at the Balogun market in Lagos praised Polaris Bank and Facebook for making it possible for her to acquire knowledge on “social media marketing”

She said,“This programme which attracted the participation of the SME community in Nigeria drew attendance from the 6 geopolitical regions of the country.

At the end, it was a general consensus of the participants that Polaris Bank is a future-determining Bank committed to the delivery of industry-defining products for individuals and businesses organizations and owners.