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First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank), one of Nigeria’s leading financial services providers, has announced that loan disbursement under its agency banking has hit N100 billion. Agent Credit scheme, which supports FirstBank’s Firstmonie Agents, was launched barely one year ago.

FirstBank in a statement, today, said the loan disbursements delivered economic empowerment to its beneficiaries, and that the bank has over 114,000 Firstmonie Agents, spread across 772, out of 774, Local Government Areas in the country.
 
FirstBank said it created the Agent Credit scheme to promote and expand the business activities of its foremost agent banking platform: Firstmonie Agents. The agents, the bank said, are put in an advantageous position to positively impact their immediate environment.
 
“Firstmonie Agents have been integral to bridging the financial exclusion gap, providing convenient banking services that are easily accessible, thereby saving time and travel costs for individuals in the suburbs and remote environments that have no access to financial services,” FirstBank said.

Commenting further, the bank said that its financial inclusion activities are in line with the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure the availability of affordable financial products and services to all individuals and groups of people in the country, irrespective of location, literacy levels, familiarity with technology and accessibility to modern infrastructural facilities.

“We are truly excited about the tremendous impact of the Agent Credit on the performance of our Firstmonie Agents nationwide,” said Chuma Ezirim, Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, at First Bank. “Since the introduction of the Agent Credit to support our ‘Human ATMs’ as we fondly call our Firstmonie Agents, they have recorded immense growth in their businesses, at levels they never envisaged in such a short period.”

He said a major goal of FirstBank is to continue to deliver financial services to the underserved and unbanked populations, employing modern technology for processing of real time transactions and in doing so, contribute to building capacities and learning new skills in information technology, cash management and relationship management for the FirstMonie agents.  

FirstBank has over 750 business locations across the country where it offers a broad range of retail and corporate financial services to over 30 million customers. The bank has international presence through its subsidiaries, FBN Bank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.