9 Payment Service Bank (9PSB), Nigeria’s digital payment service bank, focused on financial inclusion has reiterated its support to Nigerian women entrepreneurs and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises through its agent banking business opportunities that will scale up their revenue base and improve their standard of living at the 2024 South-West Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Emerging Market Emerging Market Summit and Expo.
The event themed “Women Entrepreneur as Catalyst for Sustainable Development and Economic Growth” held at Lagos State Co-operative Federation (LASCOFED), aimed at training and empowering over 500 women participants on entrepreneurship skills and fostering market link and economic growth, had in attendance women entrepreneurs and SMEs owners across South-West region who have been using their skills and resources to make purpose driven contributions to the society.
Speaking at the event, the Chief Executive Officer, and Managing Director, 9 Payment Service Bank, Branka Mracajac, represented by the Head of Sales Distribution and Strategic Partners, 9 Payment Service Bank (9PSB), Kunle Isiaka commended the women for their resilience and viable contributions to their communities through the various initiatives and businesses.
“I am indeed very thrilled to see these amazons who have been breaking all barriers without limitation in all strata of the society. Women are truly the bedrock of the society; when a woman is trained, a nation is of course trained. We cannot over emphasize the need for the women the be financially included, empowered, and given the required support to thrive. It is understood that a reasonable number of the women folks lack the basic financial knowledge, and many are financially excluded from the formal financial system, this has impacted, to an extent, their means of doing business,” Kunle noted.
A report by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), a Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) organisation, states that at least thirty-eight million (that is, 36%) Nigerian adults still do not have a bank account but majority of them have phones, it also shows that four out of every 10 Nigerians are financially excluded, and they are mostly females. In Lagos State, there are at least eight million adults between the 18 years and above who live in Lagos and more influents daily. Out of this number, 54% of adults are business owners or traders and 28% of them receive payment digitally. With this statistics, 9 Payment Service Bank is working and consolidating on these areas.
“In addition, 91% of Lagos adult females are currently financially served, 6% of women in Lagos have access to credit facility, while we focus on the 8% excluded Lagosian, although our license does not permit us yet to give out loans, but we are doing everything possible to ensure we support the women through our agent banking training geared towards women empowerment,” Kunle added.
Further stating the bank’s efforts at bridging these gaps, Kunle noted: “As a bank providing services to the banked and underbanked, we dwell on strategic partnership with other players in the industry because we cannot do it all alone, we have the mandate to drive financial inclusion and ensure that every household is financially included. Also, a robust agent network spreading across the country to facilitate financial transactions have been of tremendous progress. We have empowered over 18,000 agents out of which over 45% of them are women. As we make progress in this journey, our Service Location Partners will continue to engage you at your various locations with necessary support to thrive as a merchant in the payment services industry.”
