By Felix Khanoba

As part of Sterling Bank’s objective to promote sustainable development in key sectors of the economy, the financial institution has partnered with Jamub Group of Companies to boost the nation’s agricultural and health sector.

The Bank’s Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Mr Tunde Adeola, stated this in Abuja during a courtesy visit to Jamub Group corporate headquarters.

A statement made available to The AUTHORITY by spokesperson of Jamub Group, Freda Okhiria, said Adeola stated that the bank since 2017 decided to intervene in the key sectors of the economy.

“Sterling Bank is not into every business but that does not mean we do not have customers in other areas. Since 2017 we chose areas we wanted to do business in, these are areas we want to lend to, we call them the HEART of Sterling Bank, H- Health, E-Education A-Agriculture R- Renewable energy T- Transport. We choose these areas because they impact directly on livelihood. We will partner with your company,” he said.

He further stated that as part of the benefits of the business relationship with Sterling Bank, the bank trains business partners in areas of their investment.

Earlier, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Jamub Group, Prince Jacob Momoh, appreciated Adeola and the Sector Head, Commercial banking, Mr Tony Omoyesule for the visit.

Highlighting the Group’s product offerings he said, “we are involved in construction, we do construction jobs for TETFUND, NNPC and other MDAs. Along the line, we also thought it necessary to go into pharmaceuticals.

“Four years ago we started the journey, we got the company registered and traveled to India, we discovered that India has about 33,000 pharmaceutical factories which are major producers of pharmaceutical products for the European countries and part of America, while Nigeria’s market was already flooded with products from China and India.

“We went through the NAFDAC procedure to get our dozias, out of 42 products we sent to NAFDAC they have approved 21 already.

“In the whole of the middle belt, there are no factories, we decided to build a factory in the middle belt, and with the railway system in place, we look forward to supplying drugs to Federal Capital territory, Nassarawa, Kaduna, and Benue state, respectively.

“So if we have a factory situated here in Idu Karimo, we can make supplies to hospitals and pharmacies. Based on my findings outside agriculture another cash cow is the pharmaceutical industry.”

Speaking further, he said : “I set up a strategy team to look into areas we want to venture into this year, agriculture was one of the areas we intend to look at. Using the existing FADAMA template, we invited some of the FADAMA managers; had a meeting with them. Identifying what the farmers wanted because they have landed properties already, we discovered what they needed was the enabling equipment for farming, when given the chemicals, little resources, and others, we in turn get 80% of their produce, of which they can sell off 20% of these produce to us. We ensure they have strong guarantors (village chiefs, family members, etc).

“Now we are working on signing in 100,000 farmers into our database. Take rice, for example, the return on investment is massive, with the investment of about N4billion you are talking about a turnover of N27 billion.”