LAPO Microfinance Bank has partnered with MTN to extend loans obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Micro Small and Medium Enterprise Fund (MSMEDF) to retailers. This is in an effort to financially include and to grow the Small and Medium enterprise in Nigeria.
The partnership called ‘MTN BizGrow’ is an initiative of MTN Nigeria with the aim of engaging, empowering and expanding MTN retailers. The partnership tends to provide funds to MTN retailers in order for them to boost their sales.
Loans will be advanced to selected or qualified retailers to tune of a minimum of N50,000 and maximum of N100,000 with no tangible collateral required.
To access the loan, the person must be a MTN retailer and must have been in business for a minimum of period of 12 months. Also the person must open account with LAPO and must provide a guarantor, while the loan would be accessed at any LAPO branch in the 28 states in Nigeria.
Speaking during at the event, Godwin Ehigiamusoe Managing Director/chief executive officer of LAPO Microfinance bank said the bank has made clear commitment to MSMEDF and has at the moment accessed N200m from the fund and hopes that with the partnership more people will enjoy the product, with the support of MTN.
“As a foremost Microfinance Bank in Nigeria, we needed to align with the aspiration of the CBN to ensure that the people operating at the lower cadre of the economy – the micro small and medium enterprises have access to finance. We made our clear commitment to MSMEDF and we have at the moment accessed N200m from the fund. We hope that as we recruit more people especially for this product with the MTN, we will be able to go up”, Ehigiamusoe said.
He added that he strongly believes the product has the potential to scale up to reach a larger number of people.
He admitted that apart from the N200 million accessed earlier by LAPO, it has been able to access N100milion for this product.
He said that the challenge for accessing the fund is that people are not meeting up with the conditions required by CBN. “there could be some challenges with other institution but the fact is that this is not a national cake of charity therefore there will be challenges. May be people are not meeting those conditions I may not know”, he said.
HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE
