Sterling Bank Partners Group on Entrepreneurship Devt

Nume Ekeghe

As part of effort to educate and increase capacity in the small and medium scale enterprise (SMEs) space, Sterling Bank Plc in partnership with Leap Africa will enlighten chief executives and entrepreneurs on risk management.

The bank stated that its partnership with Leap Africa by sponsoring of the group's annual CEOs' forum was poised at providing SMEs strategy in dealing with risk in present political and economic realities in Nigeria. The program scheduled to hold on 9th of June was announced at an event in Lagos on Tuesday.

Speakers expected are the chief executive officer, Nestle Nigeria, Mr. Harness Gordhon, Executive Director Sterling Bank, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, Managing Director, Custodian and Allied insurance Plc, Mr. Wole Oshin, Managing Director, Wapco Operations Larfage Africa Plc, Mrs. Adepeju Adenajo and the Managing Director JNC International limited, Mrs. Claire Omatseye.

Speaking on what this event hopes to achieve, Suleiman said: “This event is about looking for specific things that could harm them and things they could benefit from and hopefully help to set them on the path to being better prepared for those events.”

He also said the major threat recently to SMEs was currency devaluation which would be lectured at the event.

He added: “As a result of the volatility of the exchange rate, and the fact that the economy is import dependent, a lot of our SMEs have suffered as a result of the devaluation recently. In the last 10 years, this is the third time we have seen significant devaluation. So the question is how do we help SMEs to be able to deal with these situations better?.

“It is nice to partner with credible people who are doing things for the country but we also go back to ask ourselves if it is beneficial to the environment and if it is, as an institution we would benefit from it.”

Speaking at the media briefing, the Executive Director, Leap Africa, Mrs. Iyadunni Olubode said the event which would is in its 10th year, would equip business owners with skills to sustainable businesses.

She said: “This year, our theme is "Staying Ahead: Maximising Profit and Mitigating Risks," and the focus is really getting into the room experts and people who have run businesses successfully. People who have encountered risks and have still being able to surmount the challenges they have encountered and builder sustainable businesses in spit the challenging environment that we find ourselves in.”

Culled from: http://www.thisdaylive.com