Chinwendu Obienyi
Access Bank Plc has said it granted up to N37 billion in loans to its Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) customers in 2018.
Speaking to pressmen in Lagos, recently, Head, Emerging Businesses, Access Bank, Ayodele Olojede, noted that the bank, in three years, has invested significantly in the growth of SMEs.
“At Access bank, we love MSMEs and we have significantly invested in our understanding of the market variables and its risk factors sufficiently such that over a 3 year period, we have expanded lending at a growth rate of 30 per cent and in 2018, we achieved a growth rate of 54 per cent granting about N37 billion to MSMEs leveraging best in class specific MSME credit assessment methods.
“With this innovative method of lending, all that an SME requires to access a loan is a good credit record and keeping sales /business records and we will lend to you without asking you for an arm and a leg. We will work with the asset type that you have and register it on the National Collateral Registry,” she said.
Olojede added that, “in 2018 alone, using this method, we have been able to grant loans to over 3,000 ‘New to Borrowing’ customers and with flexible collateral options enabled by National Collateral Registry.”
According to her, “30 percent of what we have granted to SMEs were used to support women business owners through our W-power Initiative, with loans priced at 15 percent per annum”.
Olojede revealed that the bank has begun to expand its footprints in the health, education and technology sectors, while adding that, through its partnership with Medical Credit fund, practitioners across the health value chain can access loan up to N3 million without collateral.
“We are also at the forefront of driving the creative sector loan. We are about the only bank to have submitted an application to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).