1st May is a day set aside globally to celebrate International Workers’ Day. Okay.ng analyses the role of FirstBank in supporting workers across the Federation.
International Workers’ Day is dated back to May 1886, when a labour protest rally, was staged near Chicago’s Haymarket Square. The protest was engineered on the strenuous working hours and unsafe working conditions of workers. The event, often referred to as the Haymarket Affair, has since become a symbolic one in Labour History. Consequently, March 1st was benchmarked to commemorate Workers’ Day globally.
FirstBank of Nigeria Limited joined others across the globe to celebrate Workers’ Day on 1st May 2022.
On the occasion, the financial and services institution appreciated the efforts of workers through her various social media handles. One was themed with:
A day to put up your feet and relax.
A day to get away from the usual daily hustle
And why not?
With all your hard work, you’ve truly earned it.
A 2021 report shows that the bank is one of the most worker-friendly banks in Africa.
Furthermore, the institution has shown immense support towards workers with some initiatives; the foremost being FirstAdvance, and PLAS (Personal Loan Against Salary).
The FirstAdvance is a digital lending solution designed to offer convenient and easy access to cash for payroll customers awaiting payment of their salaries.
With over 215,376 people having access to the loan, a total of 580,363 transactions have been made for this service since January 2022.
FirstAdvance is meant for salary earners whose accounts are domiciled with FirstBank, and have received regular salaries in the last six months. N500,000.00 stands as the maximum accessible amount, subject to 50% of net average three months salary.
The service is subject to reasonable terms and conditions, and can easily be accessed through the FirstMobile app or by simply dialing *894*11#.
The Personal Loan Against Salary (PLAS) is another worker-driven initiative that allows salary earners access up to N30 million.
This is in a bid to help them pursue capital projects, carry out renovation works on their properties, acquire assets, give their children the best education, meet rent obligations, sponsor a vacation trip to choice destinations, pay for professional examinations to take their career to the next level, and other fulfilling accomplishments.
PLAS is available to workers whose accounts are domiciled with FirstBank, and has a 36 months repayment option with no guarantor required. Although some documents must be tendered before the bank as a prerequisite for taking the loan.
Unlike FirstAdvance, its sister product which has been so far applied by more than 580,363 customers from January till date, 13,236 transactions have been in respect of PLAS from January till date.
Impact of these services on customers cannot be overstretched.
A satisfied customer named Idrisa Musa showered some accolades on the bank in the following words:
Keep the good work Honestly! I’m fully satisfied with this service and I don’t see any default.
Another customer named Azuka Thankgod noted:
keep the good work going cos u savevpeoples lives on way or the other
Oyeniyi Oluwaseyi Elijah appreciated the concept and said:
it’s a fantastic idea from the bank and I love it
Okay.ng understands that since January 2021 to date, a total of N144,015,961,233.22 (one-hundred and forty-four trillion, fifteen billion, nine hundred and sixty-one million, two-hundred and thirty-three thousand, twenty-two Naira) has been approved for interested working customers by FirstBank.
