Over N5 Billion in financing has been extended to support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria so far in 2022, by Primera Microfinance Bank, as part of what the bank expects to contribute towards boosting economic growth.
The Bank, in a press statement, said this feat was achieved by strategically targeting key growth sectors in the SME space to stimulate their commercial and economic growth. It further pledged to maintain robust financing lines to entrepreneurs in the economy, to enable them weather economic headwinds and surmount critical financial challenges.
“At Primera MFBank we are solidly committed to building the capacity of Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in this economy to ensure they thrive, create wealth for our people and add value to society,” said Unwana Efiong Esang, chief executive officer of Primera Microfinance Bank. This, according to him, is critical as available data shows that over 99 percent of registered businesses in Nigeria are MSMEs and they constitute 46 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), this is in addition to providing over 87 percent of employment in the economy.
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“Our bank, through our Primera Business proposition, is proud to be championing the cause of SMEs in our economy. In recognition of the fact that access to finance is a major challenge to SMEs, we have optimised our lending processes to make our financing lines more accessible and available in a time and cost-efficient manner to our highly valued SME clientele,” he said. “In addition to these, we have established partnerships that have significantly improved on credit application support, as well as the knowledge, expertise and enabling infrastructure around SMEs through our periodically held and very well-attended Primera SME Clinics.”
He further explained that these clinics are focused on empowering SMEs and entrepreneurs with company incorporation support, financial and economic literacy, sales and marketing support, book-keeping knowledge, branding support and legal advisory for their businesses. “We have developed a very robust and all-encompassing ecosystem to incubate SMEs to achieve market and economic success,” he said.
In recognising the key role that gender-diversity and financial inclusion for women plays in driving sustainable economic growth, approximately 26 percent of these financing lines were made out to female entrepreneurs in the current financial year, doubling the 13 percent share recorded in 2021, according to the company. These funding lines were focused on enabling small and medium-scale entrepreneurs to sustain and grow their businesses as well as empower them to launch new businesses to compete in the marketplace.
