By Merit Ibe
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has reiterated the need for development finance institutions (DFIs) and other stakeholders to reduce access barriers against businesses in the country to bridge the funding gap for small and medium businesses.
The chamber noted that majority of Nigerian SMEs have not significantly benefited from available financing opportunities in the country, adding that limited funding is one of the major constraints facing businesses especially SMEs, citing the PwC report that the SMEs have a funding gap of about N617billion.
President of the chamber, Mrs Toki Mabogunje, in a webinar with the theme: ‘Funding Opportunities for Businesses with the Bank of Industry’, said lack of information (on the part of businesses) about the funding schemes offered by different institutions, inability to meet the requirements for funding and contravening application guidelines.
She added that submission of wrong or outdated documents (such as tax certificate, financial reports, CAC registration certificate), poor record keeping and poor credit history, that is failure to service previous facility prevents business owners from accessing another, are major factors inhibiting many businesses from accessing loans from financial institutions.
She urged businesses to take advantage of opportunities available to them through the interventions by LCCI.
The Deputy Head, Business Development, Bank of Industry (BoI), Mrs Aderonke Akinluyi, emphasised the bank’s role in supporting industrialisation, import substitution and poverty alleviation.
“We always ensure that we provide relatively lower interest rates than that of the commercial banks so that businesses can access the funding that helps development and societal impact.