Bank offers $4b financing in new investment criteria

Emerging rich consumers in Nigeria have been assessed to have plans to start a business, as a way to increase their wealth, more than observed in any other market, the Standard Chartered, in a new study, said.

The Emerging Affluent Study 2018, titled “Climbing the Prosperity Ladder”, examines the views of 11,000 emerging affluent consumers, who are earning enough to save and invest, from 11 markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

In Nigeria, 41 per cent of emerging affluent consumers say that starting their own business is a strategy to meet their financial goals and increase their wealth, compared with an average figure of just 27 per cent.

It is ranked the second most popular strategy to increase wealth among the emerging affluent Nigerians, behind investing in financial products (55 per cent); and ahead of career progression and salary increase, which sits in third place (33 per cent).

Meanwhile, Standard Chartered has restated its commitment to facilitating $4 billion toward clean technology by 2020, as it launched its refreshed public position statements, which cover new and tightened requirements for the Group to undertake business in industries with high potential environmental or social impact.

The refreshed position statements form part of a wider goal to increase support and funding for sustainable financing, as well as strive to minimise damage to the environment and encourage positive social change as a result of its financing.