EFInA, GIZ to ease funding for MSMEs via hackathon -

In furtherance of its efforts to bridge the huge financial gap and access to funds for Micro, Medium, and Small-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) in partnership with GIZ is organising an innovative virtual hackathon challenge tagged: ‘MSME finance – breaking the barriers’.

In Nigeria, access to finance remains a priority area of assistance for both SMEs (67.9%) and Micro enterprises (90.5%) even though the MSMEs sector contributed 46.31 percent to the National GDP, and accounted for 6.21 percent of gross exports according to the SMEDAN/NBS 2017 Survey.

The registration portal: https://bit.ly/MSMEFINANCE_BREAKINGBARRIERS opened for participation in the hackathon, from Friday, July 8, 2022, to August 1, 2022. The hackathon will be preceded by four webinars to be facilitated by industry thought leaders between July 28 and August 1, 2022.

According to the organisers, the hackathon is open to individuals who are at least 18 years old and are members of the Financial Service Innovators Association of Nigeria (FSIAN). Shortlisted candidates for the hackathon will participate either as a team of two or a maximum of five people.

Candidates will be required to take on the challenge of developing creative and innovative ideas, and MVPs that address at least one of the broad objectives for microenterprises such as financial management skills development, digitised credit appraisal and lending system, MSME product design toolkit, and alternative collateral options

In a statement issued in Lagos, the chief executive officer, EFInA, Owolabi Isaiah, said: “We are excited to introduce the virtual hackathon challenge tagged: ‘MSME Finance … Breaking Barriers’. Despite the proliferation of credit providers in Nigeria – both regulated and non-regulated – the financing gap for MSMEs has widened due to several issues like inability to fulfill requirements (financial records, collateral), manual/rigid credit reporting system, high default rate, manual KYC verification process, lack of financial management skills, and lack of market linkages.