Having increasingly supported the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with funding totalling N37 billion in 2018 from N22 billion in 2017, Access Bank Plc is planning to expand its footprint into three critical sectors of the economy.
Consequently, the bank would be extending its loan portfolio to education, health and technology. To further ease the process of loan application and processing as part of continuous innovation to support the growth of SMEs, the bank would in the fourth quarter of this year, launch an online portal.
A total of 12,000 customers benefited from the bank’s lending in 2018, which represents 9.1 percent compared to 11,000 customers in the previous year of 2017.
Ayodele Olojede, head of emerging businesses at Access Bank explained that the bank was able to maintain its leadership position in SME funding because the bank introduced an innovative approach to lending, which simplified the process and made it more customer-friendly.
“We were able to achieve this feat because we introduced an innovative approach to lending and you know that with this innovative approach to lending, all that the customers’ needs to do to access loans is just to keep good credit record and to keep their own sales records ,” she said.
Olojede said the bank also uses its lending to support societal causes including women empowerment and that 30 per cent of loans granted to SMEs were used to support women through the bank’s W-power initiative.
The bank provides concessionary interest rate of 15 per cent per annum to businesses where women own 50 per cent shareholding in addition to other incentives.
The loan portfolio is collateral-free for Nigerians as Access Bank is the only bank currently using the National Collateral Registry in support of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Through its partnership with Medical Credit Fund, she said could grant loan of up to N3 million without collateral.
“We love SMES and we do not pay lipservice to SMEs. To the extent of how much we want to support SMES, we have invested significantly in our understanding of the risk factors in that segment. In the last three years, we have supported SMEs. In 2018 alone, we granted up to N37 billion in loans to our SME customers which won us award globally,” Olojede added.
She stressed that the bank’s business model on SMEs is an ecosystem of all that SMEs need to thrive, including credit facility, mentoring, professional advisory services on key functions such as accounting, marketing and management and networking among others.
On the other hand, 10 Nigerians have emerged in the monthly draw of the Diamondxtra savings scheme season eleven initiated by Access Bank.
The presentation which took place in various states across Nigeria saw Samuel Ebu, Stanley Igwe, Olusina Fadare, Amos Tochukwu, Orungbala Anna amongst others winning N1 million naira each.
Samuel Ebu, a businessman, could not hide his joy, having become a million naira richer, said, “I feel so good and excited to have N1 million with Access Bank and I have had a Diamondxtra account for three years now and since I started banking with the Bank, everything has been perfect, no complaints whatsoever as they are reliable.
I had initially thought their call was a mistake because I did not think I could win but here I am, a winner of N1million. I want to encourage Nigerians to partake in this initiative and bank with Access Bank”.
Another customer, Stanley Igwe, an IT professional thanked the bank for the opportunity and called on Nigerians to participate in the rewarding scheme.
Speaking during the cheque presentation to winners, Robert Giles, head, products insights and capabilities, Access Bank, revealed that the initiative has paid off immensely in which over N5 billion have been given out to winners while adding that Diamondxtra savings scheme has not only transformed lives in short term but will do that for years to come.
According to Giles, the Diamondxtra rewarding scheme has improved year-inyear-out and Access Bank remains in constant engagement with its customers on what they would like in subsequent season of the rewarding scheme.
“The initiative has been very successful for the bank and when we have happy customers, we have happy numbers. so customers who use Diamondxtra stay with us a lot longer and they do more with us because effectively our customers get rewarded for something they were doing before, they save and in addition to them keeping their money, they build for the future and getting interest on their savings, we give them the opportunities to win more amazing prizes, so it is a win-win situation for the bank.
We have millions of customers now on Diamondxtra and so we are no longer counting in hundreds or thousands because the initiative is a lot bigger and much more improved now”.
Giles further said, “You can come to the bank, open a Diamondxtra account in any one of our access bank branches accross the country or you can call us and we will send an agent to you, then fund the account with N5000. Every N5000 you have in that account, you have an opportunity to be in draw to win salary for life, education allowance for 5 years and so many prizes”.
Diamondxtra is an interest yielding hybrid account which allows deposit of both cash and third party cheques. Hybrid means a combination of both savings and current account features. The Diamondxtra reward scheme was launched in 2008 and has been running till date.
