In an exclusive interview with Arise TV on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York, the CEO of FirstBank, the premier West African financial institution and financial inclusion service provider, Olusegun Alebiosu highlighted poverty eradication as a pressing concern that should keep international leaders up at night. Alongside poverty, climate change and gender inequality are equally pressing issues that demand attention and action.
Alebiosu stressed that poverty, in all its forms, stems from lack of access and resources. He highlighted that finance is the most critical factor in combating poverty in the 21st century. “The easiest way to get out of poverty is access to finance,” he noted.
Some of the important discussion topics during the UN Global Compact Leaders’ Summit according to Alebiosu included innovative financing, sustainable financing, and the impact of artificial intelligence on humanity. He stressed the critical need to develop human resources to tackle the widening economic gap between developed and developing nations. This emphasis on human resource development echoes the United Nations’ focus on sustainable development and equality, particularly in areas such as gender equality, climate action, and living wages.
As a financial expert in Nigeria and Africa, Alebiosu has identified financial inclusion as a key area for FirstBank to address in supporting poverty alleviation under the sustainable development goals. FirstBank considers financial inclusion a central part of its business strategy, resulting in the extension of over N36 billion in loans to women in 2023 and the development of a gender market strategy to strengthen the Bank’s women portfolio. Alebiosu highlighted FirstBank’s extensive Firstmonie agents’ network in Nigeria, which surpassed 232,000 in 2023, with over 55,000 of the agents being women who continue to offer financial services in their communities as a testament to the power of financing in advancing economic interests and promoting economic development.
Concluding, Alebiosu expressed his vision for the future and said “FirstBank will further be entrenched into the fabric of the society, earning a place in the hearts and minds of Nigerians as a Giant advocate for economic development in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.”
The UN Global Compact Leaders’ Summit is an annual day-long conference that empowers private sector leaders to drive sustainable development and advance the 2030 Agenda. The event provides a unique platform for business leaders, UN officials, government leaders, SDG stakeholders, and civil society professionals to converge and explore innovative solutions with actionable insights. This year’s edition held inNew York, on Tuesday September 24, 2024
About FirstBank
First Bank of Nigeria Limited “FirstBank”, established in 1894, is the premier bank in West Africa, a leading financial inclusion services provider in Africa, and a digital banking giant.
FirstBank’s international footprints cut across three continents ─ Africa, Europe and Asia, with FirstBank UK Limited in London and Paris; FirstBank in The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone; FBNBank in Senegal; and a FirstBank Representative Office in Beijing, China. All the subsidiary banks are fully registered by their respective Central Banks to provide full banking services.
Besides providing domestic banking services, the subsidiaries also engage in international cross-border transactions with FirstBank’s non-Nigerian subsidiaries, and the representative offices in Paris and China facilitate trade flows from Asia and Europe into Nigeria and other African countries.
For over 130 years, FirstBank has built an outstanding reputation for solid relationships, good corporate governance, and a strong liquidity position, and has been at the forefront of promoting digital payment in the country with over 13 million cards issued to customers (the first bank to achieve such a milestone in Nigeria). FirstBank has continued to make significant investments in technology, innovation and transformation, and its cashless transaction drive has been steadily accentuated with virtually 23 million active FirstBank customers signed up on digital channels including the USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code.
With over 42 million customer accounts (including digital wallets) spread across Nigeria, UK and sub-Saharan Africa, the Bank provides a comprehensive range of retail and wholesale financial services through more than 820 business offices and over 243,400 agent locations spread across 772 out of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.
In addition to banking solutions and services, FirstBank provides pension fund custody services in Nigeria through First Pension Custodian Nigeria Limited and nominee and associated services through First Nominees Nigeria Limited.