Relief may have come the way of parents, guardian, teachers and proprietors of schools in Nigeria as Sterling Bank Plc launches it’s the Back-To-School Campaign. The campaign is aimed at providing succor for all stakeholders in the sector as schools resume in September.
The primary target for the campaign are the primary and secondary schools (administrators, owners and teachers) while the secondary audience are all primary and secondary school-students and their parents.
Areas covered under the campaign include School financing, Asset Finance, Textbook and Educational Materials Finance for schools; School fees finance for parents; Coding and Robotics Summer Boot Camp for children, Household Equipment finance and Training for teachers to mention a few.
The Bank’s Group Head, Strategy & Finance, Mr. Shina Atilola in a statement made available to reporters at the weekend explained that the school fees financing solution was introduced to provide parents with instant financing for school fees and allow them put their kids in school while awaiting salaries and other receivables.
He explained that under the Bank’s Asset finance scheme, existing and new account holders will qualify for short-term financing against receivables while “Sterling Bank can finance acquisition of Buses, ICT Infrastructure, Interactive Boards and other items the school may wish to purchase in the Back-to-School season under the asset finance scheme”.
The Bank’s chief strategist explained that Schools in the books of the Bank can access finance for a 90-day tenor at very competitive rates compared to the industry benchmark. “This would be an incentive to school owners as surveys have shown that a large number of schools have challenges with payment of salaries and for renovation projects when school fees are not fully received’’, he explained.
Mr. Atilola added that existing and prospective schools can also enjoy free deployment of our Eduportal and Payment Gateway at no cost to the school. The solution, he noted, provides a platform to integrate the payment of school fees, levies and any other school-related payments. The platform also aids record-keeping, and make for seamless day-to-day management of operations in schools.
While the Bank offers schools a quick financing solution to purchase textbooks and learning materials from major Publishing Houses and Bookshops like Learn Africa Plc, Doroena Books and other designated outlets for the school year, Mr. Atilola explained that Schools that open salary accounts for their teachers this season will have their teachers qualify automatically for our the Bank’s Personal Financial Management and other Teacher training programmes (for both local and foreign courses)
Under the Household Equipment Finance, he explained that teachers with salary accounts would qualify for discounted acquisition of household items with flexible payment plans.
He said further: “New and existing I-CAN-SAVE customers who have opened and maintained a balance of N50,000 in their accounts for a minimum 30-day period qualify for freebies and are eligible to Coding School Summer Boot Camp and Robotics Training Schools being organized by Sterling Bank Plc during the holidays”.
Sterling Bank Plc, “the one-customer bank”, is a full-service national commercial bank with an asset base above N800 billion, over 187 business offices and more than 800 ATMs nationwide. In over 55 years of service, Sterling Bank (formerly NAL Bank) has evolved from the nation’s pre-eminent investment banking institution to a fully-fledged commercial bank. Furthermore, with a strong national presence, Sterling Bank is one of the top 30 most capitalized institutions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The bank also remains one of Nigeria’s fastest growing banks and is recognized as a dynamic financial services organization.