Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and Sterling Bank have created a non-collateralised N5 billion loan portfolio to assist over 10,000 small businesses in the country.
The loan is the outcome of a strategic partnership that will help SMEs access loans ranging from N250,000 to N2.5 million at a single interest rate.
The Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Charles Odii speaking at the signing of the pact between the two institutions said the agency will begin to receive applications in two weeks.
“Access to finance comes in different compartments but what we want to do as an agency is to first of all, make this access to finance easier because we understand that finance is very scarce and expensive in this part of the world, so we want to make sure that we solve that problem.
“We will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding; this is basically to create a loan portfolio of N5 billion at a single-digit interest rate for small businesses across different sectors. With this loan portfolio, we can make available access to finance for close to 10,000 small businesses”
The Managing Director, Sterling Bank, Abubakar Suleiman noted that no collateral would be required in accessing the loan and a window of two years would be given for repayments.
“We are going to deliver this through a technological platform because it has to be easy, it is not just about the interest rate but being able to access this funding without jumping through hooks from place to place.
“So, we have developed a platform called ‘Banker’ that is designed entirely to focus on small businesses, the platform allows you to access this financing, helps you to organise your business, keep your records, and helps you to pay back when it’s time ak
“In order words, any business that passes through this process, even though they fail to access or meet the standard to access the fund, will leave better off because they will understand why they were not able to access the funding and they can go back, make changes to their business practices and come back and access funding” he s
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