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Sterling Bank signs MoU with optometrists on funding, capacity building

Sterling Bank Plc has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Optometrist Association (NOA) to automate operations, enhance capacity and provide funding at competitive interest rates for members of the association.

 

Speaking at the signing ceremony of the MoU in Lagos recently, Mrs. Ibironke Akinmade, Group Head, Health Finance, Sterling Bank, said the initiative was part of the bank’s vision to be the leading bank for businesses in the health sector.

 

She said: “We have adopted a community approach in engagement with stakeholders in this sector. This will not only give us leverage to develop tailor-made propositions for the community, but it also creates an inroad for engagement of their members through a cluster approach.”

 

Akinmade said the bank recently engaged the NOA in a bid to scale on its offerings to the health sector, which include access to finance (template credit), access to digitalisation (paypressures  ment platforms and Electronic Medical Records) as well as advisory services, among others.

 

The Head of Health Finance said the rationale behind the partnership with NOA was to further position Sterling Bank as the bank of choice for businesses in the health sector, adding that this means more business collaboration and partnership with stakeholders in the health space.

 

She said the bank had earmarked N10 billion for the entire health care sector in the country and would accommodate any level of funding which members of the NOA may require.

 

According to Akinmade, under the MoU, members of the association would be able to borrow from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention for the health sector at five percent as well as obtain template credit from the bank within 48 hours at competitive interest rate of 20 percent, which is below the prevailing rate in the banking industry.

 

Also speaking, Dr. Obinna Awiaka, President of NOA, said the association wanted a bank that will help its members to grow and discovered that Sterling was the only bank that has passion for the healthcare sector.

 

He said the relationship between members of his association and the bank would build the economy because once the healthcare industry is built the economy will also be built.

 

Dr. Awiaka said the NOA was satisfied with the relationship with Sterling Bank because in no distant time the bank, in conjunction with healthcare professionals, will help to develop the sector, which will translate to a better future for the country.

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