Ecobank has called on nation’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), as well as large businesses,  to latch on to the opportunities provided by  its recently-launched Single Market Trade Hub,  launched recently, describing the cutting-edge digital platform as a game changer for businesses.

 

The Ecobank’s Single Market Trade Hub serves as an exchange and information repository, designed to respond to the evolving trading needs of SMEs and corporate within Africa’s single market.

 

The Bank, in a statement, also described the hub, now activated, as connecting  traders across Africa, within the 1.4 billion-people single-market framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

 

“The Hub  unlocks a wide array of opportunities with its unique online match-making feature, which facilitates easy connection between importers and exporters who have created their company profiles and are ready to exhibit their goods and services, making it seamless for traders to link up with buyers and suppliers across Africa.

 

“It also provides businesses with access to a valuable repository of vital information and knowledge of the AfCFTA,  helping SMEs with critical resources to expand their trade into new markets in Africa and evolve into sustainable and scalable enterprises,” the statement read.

 

Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Kola Adeleke while speaking on the inherent benefits of the digital trade platform to Nigerian businesses, stated that it would promote intra-African trade and empower them to explore AfCFTA opportunities, adding that it would equally help importers to connect with exporters and vice-versa, within Africa’s single market and also create easy access to trading partners on the continent.

 

According to him, “This hub is in line with our vision of powering one African market. As such, It has been designed to offer a whole lot of benefits to businesses in Nigeria and beyond. Both customers and non-customers of the bank are eligible to sign up on the platform as it is also a gateway into Ecobank’s full range of products and digital solutions, including trade finance and services, cash management solutions (including RapidCollect), domestic and cross-border payments, investment banking, Capex financing and more”.

 

He maintained that Ecobank remains the go–to bank for pan-African trade and payments, noting that  the bank’s  medium-term objective is to become the leading gateway for pan-African trade facilitation in the emergent AfCFTA era, leveraging its position as a major payment bank in Nigeria.