Staff Reporter
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, First National Bank Namibia has been closely monitoring developments, with the view of provisionally restructuring its operations and solutions to meet the changing demands and minimising the impact of the pandemic. The bank has commended government on its decision to invoke extreme social distancing (lockdown) and believes that the decision is a major step in the right direction towards containing the spread on the Covid-19, and drastically minimising its impact on our society and economy.
Philip Chapman, FNB Executive Officer for Commercial assured customers that in addition to putting in place the necessary precautionary measures to safeguard the health and safety of customers, staff and vendors, FNB continued to reinforce their capacity to provide uninterrupted essential banking services which allow customers to do their everyday banking through its innovative digital channels and branches.
“We value your business and want to assure you that we are prioritising our ability to continue an uninterrupted service to you. We continuously seek solutions to meet the changing demands while minimising the impact of the pandemic for you and your business. We also believe that it is our responsibility is to help support our commercial customers whose finances have been impacted during this challenging period,” said Chapman.
FNB Namibia has therefore confirmed relief measures for SMEs with an annual turnover of less than N$10 million and with initial lending facilities of less than N$5 million. In order to qualify, customers must have a good track record of honouring their payments prior to 1 March 2020.
These businesses are requested to go to the FNB App; Click on the Covid-19 icon and follow the easy process.
All other commercial clients have been requested to contact their relationship managers to discuss their requirements.
“We hope that these measures will help ease customers’ financial constraints until things stabilise…We remain committed to helping our wider commercial and corporate banking client base with a range of innovative cashflow relief solutions and urge our clients to contact their relationship managers in this regard. We will continue to help the nation address some of the prevalent economic difficulties during this time and beyond,” Chapman concluded.