{"id":26325,"date":"2018-09-14T12:09:28","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T11:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=26325"},"modified":"2018-09-17T01:23:10","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T00:23:10","slug":"u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tayo Olanipekun<\/p>\n<p>The U.S.  Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has approved $200m in financing to help Union Bank of Nigeria expand  its lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and to invest in upgrades of the bank\u2019s digital banking projects.<\/p>\n<p>The funding is part of nearly $900m the U.S Government\u2019s development finance institution, on Thursday, approved during its final board meeting of the fiscal year, in financing and political risk insurance across seven projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>According to OPIC President and CEO, Ray Washburne, lending to women-led and women-owned businesses will also benefit from the Nigeria\u2019s share of the financing.<\/p>\n<p>OPIC President also added that the funding would provide a \u201crobust alternative to China\u2019s \u2018debt trap\u2019 diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a time when the worlds emerging markets are in a great need of development finance, OPIC\u2019s support for these projects will mobilize private investment through a model that is financially sustainable, promotes American best standards and protects local communities and workers,\u201d noted Washburne.<\/p><div data-ad-id=\"32665\" style=\"text-align:center; margin-top:0px; margin-bottom:0px; margin-left:0px; margin-right:0px;float:none;\" class=\"afw afw_ad_image afw_ad afwadid-32665  \">\r\n                                                            <div style=\"font-size:10px;text-align:center;color:#cccccc;\">Advertisement<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.accessbankplc.com\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"auto\" max-width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Banner-1.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n                                                                        \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p>It is recalled that Nigeria recently signed a $500m infrastructure loan facility with the China Exim Bank as announced at the last Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit.<\/p>\n<p>The OPIC\u2019s initiatives launched over the past year include the 2X Women\u2019s Initiative, the Connect Africa Initiative, the northern Triangle Initiative (to promote stability in Central America) as well as the Indo-Pacific Initiative.<\/p>\n<p>Other countries benefiting from the $895m development finance include Ghana with $100m for infrastructure projects through CAL Bank, Ethiopia with $126m for agricultural business, Guatemala getting $150m for a home ownership project and South and Southeast Asia getting $150m for health care.<\/p>\n<p>El Salvador, jointly with Panama, and Paraguay also got $75m and $93.75m for mortgage lending and SMEs respectively.<\/p>\n<p>OPIC is a self sustaining U.S. Government agency that helps American businesses invest in emerging markets, gain footholds in new markets, catalyse new revenue and contribute to jobs and growth both in U.S and abroad.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tayo Olanipekun The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has approved $200m in financing to help Union Bank of Nigeria expand its lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and to invest in upgrades of the bank\u2019s digital banking projects. The funding is part of nearly $900m the U.S Government\u2019s development finance institution, on Thursday, &hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":17338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17],"tags":[4409,4488,613,3002,1395,4489],"coauthors":[2387],"class_list":["post-26325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-business","category-news","tag-china-africa","tag-opic","tag-smes","tag-u-s","tag-union-bank","tag-washburne"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing - National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tayo Olanipekun The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has approved $200m in financing to help Union Bank of Nigeria expand its lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and to invest in upgrades of the bank\u2019s digital banking projects. The funding is part of nearly $900m the U.S Government\u2019s development finance institution, on Thursday, &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-14T11:09:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-17T00:23:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Union-bank-logo-copy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tayo Olanipekun\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/\",\"name\":\"National Wire\",\"description\":\"About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Union-bank-logo-copy.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Union-bank-logo-copy.jpg\",\"width\":400,\"height\":300,\"caption\":\"Union Bank Logo\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/\",\"name\":\"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing - National Wire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-14T11:09:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-17T00:23:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/582979d5818ce23344612600787b0dc1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/582979d5818ce23344612600787b0dc1\",\"name\":\"Tayo Olanipekun\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/author\/tayo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing - National Wire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing - National Wire","og_description":"Tayo Olanipekun The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has approved $200m in financing to help Union Bank of Nigeria expand its lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and to invest in upgrades of the bank\u2019s digital banking projects. The funding is part of nearly $900m the U.S Government\u2019s development finance institution, on Thursday, &hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/","og_site_name":"National Wire","article_published_time":"2018-09-14T11:09:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-17T00:23:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":400,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Union-bank-logo-copy.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tayo Olanipekun","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/","name":"National Wire","description":"About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Union-bank-logo-copy.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Union-bank-logo-copy.jpg","width":400,"height":300,"caption":"Union Bank Logo"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/","name":"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing - National Wire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2018-09-14T11:09:28+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-17T00:23:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/582979d5818ce23344612600787b0dc1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/u-s-offers-nigeria-200m-smes-digital-banking-financing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"U.S. Offers Nigeria $200m SMEs, Digital Banking Financing"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/582979d5818ce23344612600787b0dc1","name":"Tayo Olanipekun","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/author\/tayo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26325"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26367,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26325\/revisions\/26367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26325"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=26325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}