By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
The prestigious Euromoney Awards for Excellence has for the second time awarded Ecobank Group as the leading pan-African Banking Group, for the Africa’s Best Bank for the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the Africa Continent.
According to press statement from the Bank’s Headquarters, this is the second time the bank had won the same award in since in 2022 and in 2023 respectively.
According to the Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group, Jeremy Awori the award reflects Ecobank’s absolute commitment to supporting African SMEs and their continuous suite of innovations financial and non-financial to spur their growth and success.
“We aim to be the bank of choice for Africa’s SMEs. Undoubtedly, these SMEs are the key drivers for Africa’s economic growth, as they create jobs, generate prosperity while eliminating poverty across the continent,” he stated.
The Ecobank has launched major initiatives for the benefit of SMEs during the last 12 months including, the Ecobank Single Market Trade Hub, which supports the AfCFTA’s single African market.
The hub is a one-stop shop providing information about the AfCFTA, access to Ecobank’s full range of trade facilitation products and solutions (covering trade finance, advisory, payments and collections) as well as a marketplace for products, services and businesses across Africa.
They also launched their RapidCollect, product which enables Ecobank’s business customers to receive payments from their clients in their home country and across Ecobank’s network of 33 affiliates, instantly and at a lower cost than any other cross-border solution also in partnership with Mastercard Farm Pass through which we have digitised the agricultural value chain for smallholder farmers, simplifying and better securing the process for obtaining a fair price for produce.
They further launched Ellevate Equip Leadership Programme for theirn women led or focused business customers. Modules include emotional intelligence; leading with authenticity; defining strategic leadership; mastering influence, decision-making; and negotiating for results. And also the Financial Literacy Series equipping SME Managers and owners with necessary financial education, the first in the series was ‘Preparing SMEs for the Capital Markets’ and it attracted nearly 3,500 registered participants.
Ecobank Group is the leading private pan-African banking group with unrivalled African expertise. Present in 35 sub-Saharan African countries, as well as France, the UK, UAE and China, its unique pan-African platform provides a single gateway for payments, cash management, trade and investment.
The Group employs over 13,000 people and offers Consumer, Commercial, Corporate and Investment Banking products, services and solutions across multiple channels, including digital, to over 32 million customers.
