Accra, Jan 25, GNA – Fidelity Bank Ghana, has organised a virtual networking forum for more than 40 entrepreneurs.
The virtual networking was to enable the entrepreneurs to connect, share their business stories and provide feedback to Fidelity Bank and its partners on the benefits of the bank’s youth support programmes.
The virtual networking was to enable the entrepreneurs to connect, share their business stories and provide feedback to Fidelity Bank and its partners on the benefits of the bank’s youth support programmes.
The Bank, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, in Accra, said the entrepreneurs, selected from different sectors of the economy, had benefitted from the Fidelity Young Entrepreneurship Programme, which consisted of the Fidelity Young Entrepreneurs Fund (FYEF) and Orange Corners Innovation Fund (OCIF).
The Fidelity Young Entrepreneurs Fund (FYEF) was launched to provide both financial and non-financial support to enable youth-related businesses to survive and thrive.
Under the Fidelity Young Entrepreneurship Programme, Fidelity Bank had disbursed over GHS 3 million loans to beneficiaries.
Fidelity’s support of young entrepreneurs forms part of the Bank’s “Together We’re More” brand promise that views success as a collaborative effort among key stakeholders working together towards a greater good, said the statement.
It said together with its partners, the Bank would provide training programmes and up to GHC200,000 in financial support to strengthen and grow selected businesses.
As part of the Bank’s long-term youth development strategy to support the related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Fidelity Bank joined other corporate partners and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN), to launch EKN’s Ghana chapter of the Orange Corners programme.
The programme runs an accelerator to build the capacity of youth enterprises and provides low cost financing where necessary, using a revolving fund mechanism developed and managed by Fidelity Bank.
In his address at the maiden virtual networking forum, Mr Julian Opuni, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Ghana, said: “It is heartwarming to see that these young entrepreneurs are working hard and so effectively to grow and sustain their businesses.
“These flagship youth initiatives, the Fidelity Young Entrepreneurs Fund and the Orange Corners Initiative, were established to give them the necessary support and our aim with this event is to solicit ideas on how to improve these initiatives to continue to meet the dynamic needs of young entrepreneurs.
“It is our hope that the SMEs that benefitted from our financial and training programmes will grow to become big businesses that will significantly impact Ghana and beyond.”
Some of the young entrepreneurs who attended the forum expressed their appreciation to Fidelity Bank and its partners for the ongoing assistance to grow their businesses, it said.
They expressed optimism that the feedback that they shared with Fidelity Bank would be incorporated into the programmes to benefit participants.
It said Fidelity had proven that by working together with entrepreneurs, they could help them realise their business dreams, which ultimately contributed to the economic growth of the nation.
In a little over a decade, Fidelity Bank Ghana has grown from a discount house to a Tier-one Bank and is now the largest privately-owned Ghanaian Bank in Ghana.
The bank serves its about two million customers in 75 branches across Ghana and is a leader in the digital banking space.
The bank has two subsidiaries, Fidelity Asia Bank Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary in Malaysia and Fidelity Securities Limited, an asset management firm.
“In a short period of time, Fidelity Bank has become a household name in Ghana by adopting a customer-centric culture and delivering consistently on the promise of making a difference in the lives of all stakeholders,” the statement said.
GNA