Sterling Bank, Nigeria’s leading commercial bank, has extended access to its online lending platform, known as Specta, to people who are engaged in personal businesses.
Divisional Head, Retail and Consumer Banking of Sterling Bank, Shina Atilola, who disclosed this at a press conference marking the first year of operation of Specta in Lagos, said the extension is due to the platform’s capacity to pre-screen borrowers and safely provide them with faster approvals and funding.
He said Sterling Bank is keen to position Specta as Nigeria’s fastest lending platform as part of its strong desire to empower businesses and enable startups.
Also speaking, Benedicta Sadoh, Head of Value Chain Baning, said the bank was able to offer about N10 billion in loans to more than 11, 000 customers while also introducing credit cards, among others, to customers last year.
She added that the bank is looking at giving out N40 billion in loans to 50, 000 customers this year.
Responding to questions from journalists on how Sterling Bank hopes to attract and accommodate more customers of the bank on Specta, Atilola said the bank plans to achieve this through the use of social media while relying on a credit bureau to ascertain the customer’s character and capacity.
He said the bank decided to expand the coverage of the product to accommodate more customers outside the bank’s customers because of the yearnings of other potential customers.
Sadoh explained that all the loans granted through the platform are performing well, adding that the second anniversary of the product will be flagged off this week and any customer that joins the scheme between February 4th and 14th would enjoy a discount interest rate of about 1.29 percent.
Specta is an instant lending platform that offers consumer loans of up to N5 million in five minutes. The lending platform uses proprietary data and analytics to process and disburses consumer loans to salary earners who belong to pre-approved communities in less than five minutes without paper work and collateral.
The types of loans offered include personal, payday, wedding finance, rent, education and medical finance loans, among others, to salary earners.
Specta automates, simplifies and personalises the loan application, disbursement and receipt process while eliminating the slow turnaround time and other inconveniences associated with the manual process.
Hope Moses-Ashike
