How we ease Intra African trade, remittances – FirstBank DMD

The Deputy Managing Director of First Bank Nigeria Limited, Mr Gbenga Shobo has said the bank’s First Global Transfer (FGT) has contributed to the increase in Intra African trade and remittances into African countries.

Shobo in an interview with THISDAY noted that the FGT, which was launched last year had played a major role in easing remittance among African countries.

According to him, the FGT is a wholly owned platform of FirstBank designed to cater to its African subsidiaries, how has this product fostered intra-African transfers and trade.

Shobo stated that FGT has eased remittance amongst our customers in African countries where Firstbank has its presence, adding that the solution has fostered intra-Africa transfers and trade through a very fast, reliable, and automated solution that gives immediate value to the beneficiaries.

“The customers can confidently leverage the platform to transfer funds within African corridors. Interestingly, the unveiling of the FGT coincided with the commencement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which kicked off on 1 January 2021.

“On the timing in relation to easing and promoting the implementation of AfCFTA, he said, “the timing was coincidental. However, FGT will be leveraging ACFTA to boost intra-regional transfers amongst her customers’ as more traders will be empowered to do borderless transactions, “he said.

On what can be done to encourage diaspora remittances, he added: “More awareness should be created amongst the populace on the existing CBN intervention measures, such as CBN Naira4dollar initiative, auto-creation of USD Domiciliary accounts for customers without dollar account, etc. With this, beneficiaries will continue to encourage their senders to send through official channels.”