First Bank of Nigeria Limited says it has supported educational institutions in the country with over N10bn loans in the last one year.
A statement said the bank’s support was carried out through its FirstEdu product, an educational solution created to enhance the educational facilities in schools with a view to improving the quality of education across the country.
The bank said, “FirstEdu loan is targeted at private nursery, primary and secondary schools to assist the schools in achieving their desired growth in the medium and long-term.
“The product provides funding to replace old furniture and equipment, pay staff salaries, purchase brand new or fairly-used buses as well as refurbish dilapidated buildings and classroom blocks.
“With this product, school owners/proprietors can stay ahead to make learning easy and conducive for students.”
The product enabled the schools to access facilities with no tangible collateral, apart from domiciliation of school fees account with the bank, it stated.
FirstEdu portal, it explained was a modular and robust web-based enterprise portal that enabled tertiary educational institutions manage academic, administrative, professional, logistics and payment challenges.
The product’s features and benefits included e-learning, virtual library and facilitation of exchange programmes with foreign educational institutions; academic & student events/time-table/calendar management; school fees payment via the Internet; online information and result checking; and interactive community forum between students and teachers.
It also afforded applicants the opportunity of enrolling from the comfort of their homes or any location around the world; no licensing, installation and maintenance cost and plugs avenues for revenue leakages among others, it added.
The Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Chuma Ezirim, said, “With FirstEdu, private schools across the various tiers of education in Nigeria; elementary, secondary and tertiary, have the right tool to boost their business to the level they desire.
“We are pleased to have already disbursed over N10bn loans to schools in one year and we would continue to support growth in this key sector of our economy.
“At FirstBank, we identify with the impact of the educational sector on the socio-economic activities of the country and importantly the lives of everyone.”
He said the bank remained committed to supporting schools as education was the core and root factor at enabling growth of the economy.
