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Heritage Bank to develop funding model for entertainment industry

By on August 16, 2013

Heritage Bank has pledged to work with stakeholders in the entertainment industry to develop a funding model for the industry.

Managing Director/Chief Executive, Mr. Ifie Sekibo gave this assurance while responding to enquiries about the bank’s plan for the entertainment industry.

Speaking during an interactive session at the launch of the Heritage MSME Clinic, Sekibo said that one of the objectives of the bank is to develop a document on how to fund the entertainment industry. “But we need to understand the industry first”, he said.

“We have quite a number of people in the entertainment industry. The last time we met with the President of Nollywood, we wanted to found out, how do we bank them? Do we deal with each person, or we take the industry as a whole. This is because we are very willing to provide funding, and help the industry.

“Most times people think that banks can just jump in, but our approach is different. We need to first know how, when you tell us how then you can leave the financial engineering to us”, he said.

Heritage Bank assumed the license of the former Societe Generale Bank, and commenced operations in March. In line with its promise to deliver innovative, technology driven, cost competitive and efficient banking services, the bank introduced zero Commission on Turnover (COT) for all its customers.

This was followed with a funding model for Micro Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (MSME), which offers concessionary interest rate to operators in the sector. Prior to these, the Bank achieved full integration into the Instant Pay Platform of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), thus enabling members of the banking public to use the various electronic banking platforms of the bank to make transactions across the country.

Recently, Heritage Bank was appointed by the Lagos state government as its revenue collection bank through the Lagos State Electronic Banking System of Revenue Collection and Monitoring (EBS-RCM) payment platform. This follows similar mandates from other corporate organisations and institutions such as the Nigerian Customs Service, Oyo State Government, PHCN Eko Distribution, PHCN Ikeja distribution and DSTV/Multichoice.

The mandate empowers the bank to receive from the public on behalf of the state, payments, fees and levies such as withholding tax, PAYE, Ministerial Miscellaneous, Land Use Charge, Business Premises Registration Charge, Capital Gain Tax, Tax on Account in Hotels, Tax on drinks in bars, Tax on other transactions, Vehicle licensing/fine/fees and FRSC Number Plate fees, among others.

With its recent globally acclaimed 50-day world record successful deployment of the Finnacle 10 banking software as well as other on-going massive investment in building a nimble electronic banking system backbone, Heritage bank has remained at the forefront of effort to establish a robust branchless banking and highly technology-driven economy, while promoting business efficiency across many frontiers.

 

 

 

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