Wema Bank’s Contribution To Business Growth, Sustenance, Is

Wema Bank’s Contribution To Business Growth, Sustenance, Is Unrivaled – Chang, Chairman CIG Group, Nigeria

Wema Bank Plc is every entrepreneur’s delight. The Bank has contributed immensely to the growth of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through its partnerships and collaborations with businesses, organisations and conglomerates. Many businesses remain in business today thanks to the positive impact Wema Bank plays in their growth. Charles Ayodele writes.

Sustainability and profitability are two business concepts that go hand in hand. The most successful businesses are those that have shown that they have the capacity to navigate challenges resiliently and remain profitable not just in the present, but more importantly, in the long run.

In today’s competitive business scene, entrepreneurs and business owners are daily looking for ways to become profitable, increase their growth and achieve long-term success. This is a huge task that depends largely on access to finance and financial services.

As providers of financial services, banks have proven to be a key contributor to business growth and have an underlying responsibility of supporting businesses and stimulating economic growth by providing tailored financial solutions, guidance, advice and expertise.

However, only the banks that truly care have proven a true commitment to undertaking this responsibility. One of such, and unarguably the epitome of a bank that is truly committed to supporting businesses and empowering them for growth and long-term sustenance, is Wema Bank, Nigeria’s oldest indigenous and leading innovative bank.

Founded as far back as 1945, Wema Bank was established on the very precipice of empowering businesses and indigenous Nigerians with the financial services needed to thrive. A dive down memory lane puts 1945 in perspective, over a decade before Nigeria gained independence. This colonial era of Nigeria saw modern banking penetrate Nigeria but with a huge gap in service to the people.

At the time, foreign banks were the standard and indigenous banks were almost a myth. Ideas could not move from ideation to reality, businesses could not expand, and the economic power of the people was seemingly limited; a problem that rested, to a significant extent, on access to financial services and support. Upon this premise was Wema Bank founded, Nigeria’s oldest and longest standing indigenous bank established to provide financial services for the people, empower businesses to thrive and remain profitable, and providing support for the sustainable growth of such businesses and ventures.

For 8 decades, Wema Bank has stood strong as a pillar of the SME sector, providing tailored financial services for businesses to operate efficiently, supporting businesses for increased profitability and journeying with them to ensure long-term sustainability for these businesses—a legacy of impact that is no surprise, coming from the Bank that has proven to be a sustainable, resilient and profitable business itself.

A recent interview with Chief Diana Chang, Chairman of CIG Group, Nigeria, extensively put to perspective Wema Bank’s impactful legacy as a pillar of empowerment for businesses, even for a globally recognised business like CIG Motors. CIG Group is a conglomerate under which several businesses and subsidiaries like CIG Motors, CIG eHome, and CIG Energy, reside. According to Chang, the Group’s long-term relationship with Wema Bank dates as far back as 2015, just around when the Group began to invest in Nigeria.

Referring to Wema Bank’s support for the business as a relationship “beyond banking”, Chang laid admirable emphasis on Wema Bank’s utmost dedication to stirring business growth and development, stating that the Bank’s impact in sustaining businesses could not be over-emphasised and commending the Bank’s board and management for taking customers as top priorities.

From taking financial services to the nooks and crannies where small businesses lack access to introducing a new era of banking by pioneering Africa’s first fully digital bank, ALAT, launching a business-focused model of ALAT called ALAT For Business, providing a wide range of financing options tailored to the needs of businesses and promoting sustainable business in Nigeria by offering access to up to N750,000,000 in loans for purchase of renewable energy solutions through its Green Energy Finance Facility, providing access to market by forging partnerships and connecting businesses with customers and prospects, among other testaments of impact; Wema Bank has unarguably built an 8-decade strong legacy of empowering businesses to thrive sustainably.

According to Chang, “WEMA Bank’s journey has redefined banking in Nigeria with eighty years of resilience, innovation, and empowerment. Wema Bank has stood the test of time overcoming challenges and evolving to meet the needs of its customers over eight decades. From pioneering digital banking with ALAT to driving financial inclusion, Wema Bank has consistently been at the forefront of innovation”.
“The Bank has empowered individuals SMEs and key sectors contributing significantly to Nigeria’s economic growth. Wema Bank’s commitment to excellence, empowerment and customer centric service positions it as a leader in shaping the future of banking in Nigeria. As we celebrate eighty years of WEMA Bank, we say thank you for being a part of our success story and for shaping a brighter future for Nigeria’s banking industry. Cheers to 80 years of excellence and many more decades of growth, innovation, and impact”.

Wema Bank’s 80th anniversary celebration is one that truly marks a milestone not just for the Bank but also for the lives and businesses it has empowered over the decades as well as the nation, of which Wema Bank stands as proof that Nigerian owned businesses have the capacity to thrive, remain profitable and stand the test of time. One thing that is especially admirable is that Wema Bank has pulled no stops in “lifting others” as it has continued to grow itself.

Wema Bank has proven instrumental to the growth and success of the FinTech industry in Nigeria, inadvertently enabling FinTech businesses to come to life, operate profitably and become employers of labour. As the pioneer of Africa’s first fully digital bank, ALAT, Wema Bank made a move that proved beyond doubt that the Bank wasn’t just in it for profit and ‘monopoly’, but more importantly, for empowerment and impact. Rather than hoard its advanced technology as a FinTech pioneer itself, Wema Bank took the world by pleasant surprise, leveraging its wealth of experience to empower FinTechs to operate using Wema Bank’s secure and advanced network.

Today, almost 150 FinTechs are powered by Wema Bank, explaining why Wema Bank is the name behind dozens of FinTechs across the country. But for Wema Bank, it’s never been just the big businesses. Wema Bank has made a name for itself as Nigeria’s SME bank, empowering innovative thinkers to turn their ideas into profitable ventures, helping small businesses to expand and journeying with these businesses as they grow, to ensure that they thrive in the long run.

The Bank’s youth-focused tech competition, Hackaholics, has since 2019, provided a platform for hundreds of creative Nigerian youth to bring their game changing ideas to life, establish these problem-solving ideas as profitable businesses and receive the support they need to scale. In just 5 years, Wema Bank spotlighted over 3,000 game changing ideas, connecting these innovative entrepreneurs with professionals whose expert guidance shaped the unique businesses being created and disbursing over $300,000 in grants and financial support for these businesses to thrive and scale, all through Hackaholics.
Delivering excellently on its promise as captured in its slogan, “With You, All The Way”, Wema Bank’s support for businesses has indeed demonstrated that the Bank is truly dedicated to not just helping businesses get established but more importantly, helping them thrive and remain profitable in the long term. Wema Bank has done remarkably well in terms of providing the standard support for businesses as expected of financial institutions, offering flexible financing options which include business loans, lines of credit, and equipment financing, all designed to meet the specific needs of businesses at different stages of their growth journey. However, the Bank takes it further.

Going beyond simply providing financial support, Wema Bank launched its SME Business School in 2021 to educate, intellectually empower, provide valuable insights and professional guidance to help these businesses understand the intricate environment they operate in, how to navigate challenges and adapt to changing times, opportunities to leverage, ways to ensure regulatory compliance, what financing options to explore and how to access them; among others. Beyond the SME Business School, Wema Bank has provided access to market for Nigerian businesses by partnering with Trade Fairs to connect businesses to willing buyers.

It is clear at this point, that Wema Bank is an institution that is not afraid to forge partnerships and collaborate where necessary to empower more lives and businesses, and to amplify impact. Over the years, Wema Bank has partnered with both small and big businesses with all having good tales to tell about their collaboration with the Bank. Some of the Bank’s partners include the Federal Government of Nigeria, through which the FGN-ALAT Digital Skillnovation Programme was launched to empower 2 million youth and 1 million businesses with digital and business skills for long term sustainability, and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) through which the Bank launched the NYSC-ALAT Accelerator Programme to empower Nigerian youth with seamless education to employment transition by refining their skills and providing business support for aspiring entrepreneurs ahead of their advent into the labour market.

Other partners the Bank has had include Chams Holding PLC, Odu’a Investment Company Limited (OICL), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), which led to the empowerment of over 800,000 Nigerian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in one full sweep and several State governments among others, and CIG Group, a conglomerate company with CIG Motors, with whom Wema Bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Bank to finance another batch of 1,000 GAC units, allowing Wema Bank customers to buy new cars in the most financially convenient and efficient manner. This brings to light yet another way Wema Bank’s business support caters to the challenging economic terrain.

As economic fluctuations persist, businesses are affected not just by high operating and procurement costs but also by reduced purchasing power of its customers. A business whose customers can no longer afford to patronise cannot thrive for long. The only options would be to become less profitable, operate as a loss or provide flexible payment structures and frameworks for these customers. Only one of these options would ensure that these businesses remain profitable and sustainable in the long term, and that is the role that Wema Bank has undertaken for these businesses and their customers.

Partnering with several businesses from SMEs to Conglomerates on local and international levels, Wema Bank has over the years provided flexible financing for businesses, allowing their customers to make purchases by acquiring the items they require as at when needed, and spreading the payment over a period of time to cushion the financial effects.
CIG is one of such businesses with whom Wema Bank has partnered to help Nigerians access the products and services they need with a convenient payment plan. According to Chang, “With the easy buy agreement, Nigerians would not need to cough out the entire cost of a vehicle at once. There are several benefits to owning a car and Nigerians deserve to experience these benefits. We are re very thankful to this financial institution, Wema Bank, for making Nigerians privy to these benefits with GAC cars”.

Further highlighting Wema Bank’s impact as an enabler of businesses, Chang said that Wema Bank in its 80 years of service has been part of the CIG Group Nigeria’s success story, adding, “Our company has been partnering with Wema Bank since our first day in Nigeria. We started our operations in the country in 2015, which makes it almost a decade of a huge investment in Nigeria and throughout this period, we have had excellent business engagement with Wema Bank. With the growth and expansion rate of our conglomerate, our partnership with Wema Bank has been solid and thriving. Wema Bank has helped us to expand and our partnership has always been symbiotic. Our relationship goes beyond just banking, we are partners in progress to move the nation’s economy forward and we regard each other as long-term business partners”.

Chang further expressed delight with the 80 years celebration of Wema Bank, reiterating that CIG is proud to associate with Wema Bank, a bank that has since inception been providing banking solutions to investors and Nigerians. Like others who have eulogised the evolution of the bank, Chang pointed out that Wema Bank has developed with the changes that have occurred in the banking industry in the past decades. She further expressed optimism that CIG, like other conglomerates across the country, would grow with the Bank.
Reiterating the commitment of CIG to Wema Bank, she closed out adding, “We will be there as Wema Bank celebrates its 8th decade, a century, and many more years to come. We say thank you to Wema Bank for being a part of our success story and for shaping a brighter future for Nigeria’s banking industry. We assure the board and management of Wema Bank that we will always be with them as partners”.

Wema Bank is a prime example of what it means to not just be a sustainable and profitable business, but also an enabler and pillar of empowerment for other businesses to become sustainable and profitable in the long term. Institutions like Wema Bank that effectively play their part and go the extra mile in not just providing quality service but also enabling aspiring entrepreneurs to become business owners, empowering existing businesses to scale and thrive, and providing support in terms of finance, capacity building, access to market and expert guidance, among others; are key to the economic development of Nigeria. The more institutions become intentional about empowering businesses to thrive, the more the economy is stimulated, and the further Nigeria can progress in terms of national development and other economic metrics like GDP per capita.
It is clear. Wema Bank’s contribution to the sustainability of businesses in Nigeria has set it apart from its counterparts in the financial sector. Through its purposeful approach to delivering financial services, more businesses of all sizes are able to remain in business in Nigeria.

As this exceptional Bank celebrates its 80th anniversary, the world is reminded that innovation can thrive in Africa, Nigerian businesses have the capacity to last and functional financial institutions like Wema Bank are a key contributor to building profitable, resilient and long-term sustainable businesses that can also stand the test of time.