In its determination to make vacation and other forms of travel pleasant, affordable and easy, Skye Bank Plc has entered into a partnership with some leading travel agencies by providing travel financing.

At the unveiling of the partnership in Lagos on Friday, Skye Bank’s Head of Retail Banking Group, Nkolika Okoli, said the bank would provide financing for the customers to be able to buy their tickets and/or travel packages in good time to enjoy reduced fares.

According to her, the bank would provide 80 per cent of the travel cost while the intending traveller will provide just 20 per cent of the total travel cost at a minimal interest rate. The customer can they repay the loan over a maximum tenor of 12 months.

Explaining the rationale for the special partnership, Okoli said because most people who travel in Nigeria are salary earners and small business owners in the middle income segment, they are wont to save up for their travel over a long period of time so end up buying their tickets two or three weeks to the date of travel.

“What this means is that they buy their tickets at a high price. But if you buy your ticket three or four months before your travel date, you may probably save 50 or 60 per cent of what the person who buys two weeks to his travel pays,” she said.

Okoli said the new partnership would enable travellers get the best package, saying the essence of the new financing package was to encourage travellers to buy their tickets early enough to take advantage of low fare.

She noted that the existing practise where travel agencies sell tickets on credit and use their money to pay airlines is capable of eroding their capital and affect their operations since their margins are usually small.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Managing Director of Dees Travels and Tours Limited, one of the partners, Mr. Daisi Olotu, commended Skye Bank for the innovative arrangement which has taken away from the agencies the risk of customer indebtedness over ticket.

Meanwhile, the bank said it is set to host this year’s African regional organisational stakeholders’ conference  of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

GRI is an international independent organisation that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate the impact of business on critical sustainability issues such as climate change, human rights, corruption and many others. The organisation has pioneered sustainability reporting since the late 1990s, transforming it from a niche practice to one now adopted by a growing majority of organisations.

Head, Sustainability and Consumer Protection department of Skye Bank Plc, Mrs. Bola Adesanoye, said the bank would be hosting over 50 delegates from Nigerian institutions and outside of the country  who are committed to  Sustainability.

 

 

Source: Thisday Nigeria