SMEDAN and Sterling Bank unveils N5 billion funding for SMEs at Single digit interest are

A N5 billion fund for businesses was presented yesterday in Abuja by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) and Sterling Bank as part of an initiative to close the funding gap in Nigeria’s Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

The fund, according to Mr. Charles Odii, Director General of SMEDAN, was created to make life simpler for Nigerian entrepreneurs, whose main starting capital difficulty has been finding funding.

“SMEDAN’s mission is to help MSMEs have access to financing. That’s why we’ve joined with Sterling Bank to sign this memorandum of understanding today, which aims to create a N5 billion fund with single-digit interest rates for small firms in a variety of industries. “The MoU is designed to create a loan portfolio of N5 billion funding at a single digit interest rate for small businesses across different sectors in the country.

“We intend to target 10,000 MSMEs and make sure that the process is smooth throughout the nation. We will make these funds available in two weeks,” Odii stated.

“The credit facility will be given at a single digit rate, which is part of the bank’s corporate social responsibility for businesses,” stated Sterling Bank CEO Abubakar Suleiman in a statement. “Out of the 10,000 MSMEs, we hope 2,000 will outgrow their businesses and seek loan for commercial funding.”

He stated that the bank “will deliver it using technology platforms and ensure that access is seamless using a platform called ‘Banker,’ which business owners can access anywhere in the country and not queue up anywhere,” regarding the procedures for obtaining the loans.