The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted Fidelity Bank Plc final licence to operate electronic commerce services in Nigeria.
In a statement on Thursday, it said the development would enable the lender to empower Micro Small Medium Enterprises in line with its strategic business objectives.
The platform, dubbed ‘The Fidelity GreenMall,’ is an online marketplace with fully integrated e-commerce capabilities for online payments, delivery logistics, advertising, and business networking opportunities, among others.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, was quoted as saying that the bank had always seen access to markets as critical success factor in its quest to deepen the MSME service offering.
He added that with the approval and given the rapid increase in Internet penetration, there would be an opportunity to further open up new markets for the MSMEs using technology.
According to him, the CBN’s decision to grant the lender the licence to rollout electronic commerce services is driven by its unique approach to financial inclusion.
He noted that many of the MSMEs lacked requisite expertise and capacity to manage an online store thereby making it difficult for them to make sales.
Other constraints that hamper the growth of the MSMEs, according to him, are inadequate funding, poor record keeping, lack of requisite technology tools and epileptic power supply in the country.
He advised small businesses to take advantage of the online platform to boost their revenues and income by trading on local and international arena.
Okonkwo pointed out that e-commerce had gained recognition in national and international trade, disclosing that the bank was planning to strengthen the level of participation of Nigerian SMEs in the global e-commerce sales.