First City Monument Bank has explained that the rationale behind its comprehensive capacity building programme, tagged, ‘Business Enterprises and Sustainability Training,’ for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, is to lay a solid foundation for their long-term success.

In a statement, the bank said that this would also enable entrepreneurs to have access to business management skills and advisory services, learn and acquire competencies which they could apply for effective management of their respective businesses in a sustainable manner.

It noted that it held the sixth edition of the BEST programme for existing and start-up SMEs in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State recently, where hundreds of existing and start-up entrepreneurs from the six states in the South-South zone took part and benefitted from the intensive training and empowerment exercise.

This followed the success recorded at previous editions of the training across Nigeria since it commenced last year.

The initiative, led by FCMB Training Academy, the bank’s business banking group and seasoned facilitators, focused on business and skills development, marketing, finance and accounting for SMEs.

It covered various topical areas such as identifying business opportunities, surviving in a harsh business environment, improving productivity, raising capital, optimising sales, cost and revenue management, among others.

It was one of the value-added offerings of FCMB to complement its efforts in the areas of lending and advisory services to SMEs with the objective of stimulating their growth and contributions to overall national development.