Jeremy Awori, Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group, said: “This award reflects Ecobank’s absolute commitment to supporting African SMEs and our continuous suite of innovations – financial and non-financial – to spur their growth and success. We aim to be the bank of choice for Africa’s SMEs. Undoubtedly, these SMEs are the key drivers for Africa’s economic growth, as they create jobs, generate prosperity while eliminating poverty across the continent.”

Ecobank has launched major initiatives for the benefit of SMEs during the last 12 months including:

• The Ecobank Single Market Trade Hub, which supports the AfCFTA’s single African market. The hub is a one-stop shop providing information about the AfCFTA, access to Ecobank’s full range of trade facilitation products and solutions (covering trade finance, advisory, payments and collections) as well as a marketplace for products, services and businesses across Africa.
• RapidCollect, which enables Ecobank’s business customers to receive payments from their clients in their home country and across Ecobank’s network of 33 affiliates, instantly and at a lower cost than any other cross-border solution.

• The partnership with Mastercard Farm Pass through which we have digitised the agricultural value chain for smallholder farmers, simplifying and better securing the process for obtaining a fair price for produce.
• Ellevate Equip Leadership Programme for our women led or focused business customers. Modules include emotional intelligence; leading with authenticity; defining strategic leadership; mastering influence, decision-making; and negotiating for results.

• The Financial Literacy Series equipping SME Managers and owners with necessary financial education. The first in the series was ‘Preparing SMEs for the Capital Markets’ and it attracted nearly 3,500 registered participants.

In selecting Ecobank as Africa’s Best Bank for SMEs the judges based their decision on Ecobank’s longstanding and unwavering commitment to satisfying the needs of SMEs.