Heritage Bank Plc has said it has entered into a partnership with AFRICANMED and the Chinese community in Nigeria, with the aim of developing the country’s health sector and bringing down the rate of medical tourism by Nigerians.
In a statement, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo, who disclosed this at the maiden edition of AFRICANMED exhibition of top brands of medical equipment from China in Lagos recently, said there was an urgent need to reduce the huge foreign exchange which Nigerians spent every year on medical tourism.c
He stated that Heritage Bank would find it easy to provide finance for interested buyers of the medical equipment from China because it already had a robust correspondent banking relationship with Deutsche Bank of China and Access Bank of China.
The relationship, he added, would enable Heritage Bank to seamlessly open letters of credit for interested buyers.
The Group Head, Agric and Export, Heritage Bank, Olugbenga Awe, who represented Sekibo, said since some of the equipment cost millions of dollars, the bank would not expect the buyers to tie down such heavy amount of money, adding that the bank would support interested buyers with robust loans that would enable them to acquire the equipment and pay back over a period of two years.