Ecobank wins Euromoney award as Africa’s Best Bank for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
The prestigious Euromoney Awards for Excellence have recognised Ecobank (www.Ecobank.com), the top pan-African banking group, as Africa’s Best Bank for SMEs (small and medium-sized firms), for the second year in a row. Ecobank also received this honour in 2022.
“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,” said Jeremy Awori, Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group. We want to be the bank that SMEs in Africa choose. These SMEs are unquestionably the main forces behind the economic progress of Africa since they eradicate poverty on the continent by generating prosperity and jobs.
In the past year, Ecobank has introduced several significant programmes that will help SMEs, such as the:
Ecobank Single Market Trade Hub, which promotes the AfCFTA’s single African market. The hub serves as a one-stop shop for information on the AfCFTA, access to the full range of trade facilitation products and solutions offered by Ecobank (encompassing trade finance, advising, payments, and collections), as well as a marketplace for goods, services, and companies throughout Africa.
RapidCollect, offered by Ecobank’s business customers, enables them to instantly and more affordably than any other cross-border solution accept payments from their clients in their home country and across Ecobank’s network of 33 affiliates.
The collaboration with Mastercard Farm Pass, which has allowed us to digitalize the agricultural value chain for smallholder farmers, making it easier and more secure to get a fair payment for crops.
For our corporate customers who are led or prioritised by women, we offer the Ellevate Equip Leadership Programme. Emotional intelligence, authentic leadership, strategic leadership definition, mastering influence, decision-making, and results-driven negotiation are among the modules covered.
The Financial Literacy Series provides the necessary financial education for SME managers and owners. Preparing SMEs for the Capital Markets, the first of the series, attracted over 3,500 registered participants.
The judges chose Ecobank as Africa’s Best Bank for SMEs based on Ecobank’s continued and unwavering dedication to meeting the needs of SMEs.
