FirstBank yesterday disclosed that it is now disbursing more than N1 billion in digital loans every day, as part of its strategy to deepen financial inclusion and support job creation across Nigeria.
The bank's Managing Director/CEO, Olusegun Alebiosu, represented by the Deputy Managing Director, Ini Ebong, spoke on Tuesday at the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria CEO Forum 2026 in Lagos, where he said FirstBank had crossed N1 trillion in cumulative digital loan disbursements in 2025.
The CEO Forum 2026 themed: "Financing a Dignified Future: Aligning Business Action, Policy and Capital," was sponsored by FirstBank.
It brought together private sector industry leaders, governments, development partners, donors, to discuss how evidence, innovation, and partnerships can improve development outcomes across the country.
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Speaking on "Financial Inclusion: An Enabler of Inclusive Jobs and Sustainable Economic Growth," Alebiosu said digital lending products such as FirstAdvance, FirstCredit and Agent Credit were providing faster access to finance for salary earners, small business owners and banking agents.
He said FirstAdvance alone now accounts for more than N1 billion in daily disbursements, with loans delivered in under a minute and without the traditional collateral requirements that have excluded many Nigerians from formal credit.
"Behind every one of those transactions is a small trader restocking, a salaried worker meeting an emergency, an agent expanding a shopfront -- in other words, jobs sustained and jobs created," he said.
Alebiosu argued that financial inclusion should be viewed as economic infrastructure rather than charity or a corporate social responsibility initiative.
According to him, access to formal financial services enables people and businesses that operate largely outside the formal economy to save, borrow, invest and ultimately create employment.
He said FirstBank had also expanded financial access through its FirstMonie Agent Banking network, which now has more than 322,460 agents covering 99 per cent of Nigeria's Local Government Areas.
Through the network, more than 3.4 million previously unbanked Nigerians have accessed formal financial services for the first time, he said.
The bank's customer base also reflects a significant level of female participation, with the MD saying women account for more than half of FirstBank's over 46 million customer accounts.
He added that the bank's FirstGem initiative, backed by a N5 billion fund offering women single-digit-interest financing, had opened more than 50,000 accounts while providing mentoring, coaching and networking opportunities.
Beyond lending and account ownership, Alebiosu said sustainable financial inclusion would require greater attention to financial literacy, accessibility and climate finance.
He cited FirstBank's Braille training for customer-facing employees, financial literacy programmes in schools and grassroots enterprise initiatives undertaken with community organisations.
He, however, stressed that the scale of the financial inclusion challenge required collaboration between government, financial institutions, development partners and civil society.
"No single institution's balance sheet, however large, can substitute for that kind of coordinated effort," he said.
In his presentation, Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal, has called on investors and financial institutions to partner with the state government to unlock the vast economic opportunities in the state and the wider North-West region
Lawal outlined the state's potential in agriculture, mining, energy, livestock and agro-processing.
The governor said the North-West possessed significant agricultural resources, mineral deposits, large expanses of land and a youthful population capable of driving economic growth.
He, however, noted that the major challenge was no longer identifying these opportunities but organising, developing and presenting them in a manner that would enable credible investors and financial institutions to confidently assess and finance them.
Lawal urged the private sector to openly communicate the challenges affecting investment, assuring that government must respond by providing policy direction, infrastructure, security, regulatory clarity and a predictable business environment.
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He said the state had also improved its geological data, particularly on critical minerals such as lithium, gold and copper, which he described as crucial to attracting investors.
The governor said Zamfara had attracted growing interest from international investors following the availability of better data on its mineral resources.
The Deputy High Commissioner of Canada to Nigeria, Carlos Rojas - Arbulu, disclosed that the bilateral trade between Canada and Nigeria has surpassed $3 billion and "continues to grow steadily."
This, he said, reinforces Nigeria's position as Canada's second largest trading partner in Africa.
In her welcome address, the CEO of the UN Global Compact Network Nigeria, Naomi Nwokolo, said the forum was designed to move beyond repeated diagnosis of Nigeria's economic challenges to identifying practical actions that can be implemented by businesses, policymakers and financial institutions.
