Access Bank Plc has reiterated its commitment to support Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria by providing a collateral-free assistance to business owners who are in need credit loan. The new proposition is an initiative of the Access Bank Emerging Business.

It’s worthy of note that small and medium scale business face a lot of hurdles to access loan credit from financial institution and this has been a major setback to the growth of businesses in the country.

While speaking on the initiative, Access Bank’s Head of Emerging Businesses, Mrs. Ayodele Olojede said the bank has taken into consideration the challenges of SMEs hence offering lasting solution to the problem. “We don’t make impossible demands on the customer. We won’t ask you for a leg and an arm. Once you keep good credit record and sales record, that is your guaranty to get a loan,” she said. The scheme is said to target 30,000 businesses and by June, more than 12, 000 MSMEs have benefited.

According to her, in 2018 the bank advanced N37billion new loans to MSME new customers, making the bank highest lender to operators in that key segment of the economy.

“We don’t pay lip service to our love for MSMEs. To the extent of how much we want to support them, we have also invested significantly in our understanding of the risk factors, risk variables in that segment,” said Mrs. Olojede.

While commenting in the requirement to access the loan, she said maintaining good financial record qualifies customers to the loans “You don’t need to have an account with us. We will first of all do a credit check on you to know your credit score. If it is clean, we will then proceed to demand for your business records. If these two things are fine, you are close to qualifying for a loan. We are not looking for the things that banks generally require. But the good thing about us is that, if you don’t have these things, we work with you to help you achieve them all. But note that when you eventually qualify to get the loan”. She added.

Target Sectors

Three major sectors targeted but not limited to those sectors alone include health education and technology. For the health sector, the lender has entered a partnership with medical credit fund which has enabled them to grant a collateral-free loan of up to N3million to individual loan applicants.

For education, up to N10million collateral-free loan could be granted specifically for working capital purposes, to buy school uniforms, laboratory equipment, books, and for expansion.

“We are also expanding our footprint in the technology sector as well. Very recently, we introduced creative sector loan and we are currently at the forefront of pushing it. We are about the only bank that has submitted applications to the central bank on that,” said Olojede.