First Bank secures $200m facility from Afreximbank to finance clients’ needs

The facility will finance the needs of FBN’s numerous clients engaged in oil and gas and energy, manufacturing, telecommunications and associated infrastructure projects.

First Bankhead Office Building and Acting MD/CEO Olusegun Alebiosu
Olusegun Alebiosu - Acting MD/CEO First Bank of Nigeria Limited
First bankhead office building and acting md/ceo olusegun alebiosu
Olusegun alebiosu – acting md/ceo first bank of nigeria limited

First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited and Afreximbank have signed a 200 million dollar facility agreement for financing the needs of FBN’s numerous clients.

BRANDPOWER reports that the signing took place at the ongoing 31st Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2024) in Nassau, The Bahamas, on Friday.

The facility will finance the needs of FBN’s numerous clients engaged in oil and gas and energy, manufacturing, telecommunications and associated infrastructure projects.

The parties who signed the agreement included Olusegun Alebiosu, Acting CEO, FBN, Awani Kanayo, Executive Vice- President, Intra-African Trade Bank (IATB), Afreximbank, and Viswanathan Shankar, CEO, Gateway Partners on behalf of African Credit Opportunity Fund.

The 31 AAM2024 is being held in Nassau, The Bahamas from June 12 to June 15, with the theme: “Owning our Destiny: Economic Prosperity on the Platform of Global Africa’’, BRANDPOWER reports.

The AAM is taking place alongside the 3rd edition of the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF2024).

BRANDPOWER recalls that FirstBank has previously won Financial Institution Of The Year at the Afrexim Bank Pan-African Business And Development Awards.

The award was bestowed on FirstBank in recognition of the Bank’s role in promoting trade and investment endeavours across the continent.

With its subsidiaries across the FirstBank Group, FirstBank has continued to play a leading role in boosting cross-border businesses, including trade and investment opportunities, essential to enhancing trade relations amongst countries.

In 2021, the Bank launched its First Global Transfer (FGT) initiative, specifically designed to ensure safe, timely and improved efficiency in the transfer of funds across the network FirstBank subsidiaries in Africa.

First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier banking institution and leading financial inclusion services provider, has won the Financial Institution of the Year Award at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Pan African Business and Development Awards. The ceremony marked the 30th anniversary of Afreximbank as it hosted the inaugural Pan-African Business and Development Awards in association with the Business Council for Africa (BCA), in Accra, Ghana.

The award bestowed on FirstBank is in recognition of the Bank as an epitome of the Pan-African spirit through its leading role in promoting trade and investment across the continent which have been instrumental to strengthening the economic and multilateral business relationship across nations.

Amongst its role in facilitating transactions across borders, in 2021, the Bank launched its First Global Transfer (FGT) initiative, specifically designed to ensure safe, timely and improved efficiency in the transfer of funds across the network of FirstBank subsidiaries in Africa. The FGT is not restricted to FirstBank Group’s Customers alone but it is also open to every individual resident in the country the funds transfer is originating from.

Commenting on the awards then, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Afreximbank, who has been at the Bank for over 29 years said: “Tonight we are recognising outstanding leaders and institutions. Having joined the Bank in 1994, I have been fortunate to have worked with many of them… At Afreximbank, contributing to Africa’s development is a lifetime vocation, as I know it is for all those that we have recognised tonight.”

FirstBank has consistently been recognised by reputable global organisations for its steady outstanding performance and amongst the streak of recent wins is the award for Best Financial Inclusion Service Provider Nigeria 2023 by Digital Banker Africa as well as Best Private Bank for Sustainable Investing in Africa by Global Finance.