Ime Akpan
The managing director of United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), Mr. Kenneth Uzoka, has pledged the bank’s commitment to funding of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to make them more viable and better established so as to stimulate and deepen the economy of the continent.
Uzoka who stated this on Friday at opening of UBA Market Place entrepreneurial fair in Abuja said the bank is passionate about bankrolling SMEs to reduce poverty on the continent.
“We bank a lot of customers across the continent and in doing that we have discovered that there is a gap in the business value chain.
“That void we discovered is how to bring more buyers and sellers together and that is what we have done today.
“The UBA market place has brought together under one roof, more than 5,000 SMEs from across Africa. We want to create a platform in Africa similar to Alibaba and ebay,” he said.
Also speaking, UBA’s group head, retail banking, Mr. Jude Anele said the bank had set aside about N50 billion for SMEs financing.
He added that 10 per cent of the bank’s total balance sheet had had been set aside to support SMEs in countries where the bank operates in Africa.
The countries are Nigeria, Chad, Cote D’ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Congo Brazzaville, and France.
The others are Guinea Conakry, Kenya, Mali, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Cameroon, Congo DRC, Gabon, Mozambique and Tanzania.