The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria has reviewed the selection process of beneficiaries for a N5bn credit facility allotted meant for small businesses in the country.
With the new procedure, the agency has mandated the submission of Corporate Affairs Commission certificate and Tax Identification Number as a compulsory requirement to obtain the loan.
The Head of Corporate Affairs, Moshood Lawal, made the disclosure during an exclusive interview with our correspondent on Wednesday in Abuja.
The PUNCH reports that last year, SMEDAN signed an agreement with Sterling Bank to disburse loan options ranging from N250,000 to N2,500,000 at a single-digit interest rate of nine per cent, facilitating the growth of small businesses through enhanced financial access. The credit with the target to assist over 10,000 Small and Medium Enterprises has a duration period of 12 months, enabling small businesses to leverage the facility fully.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the SMEDAN DG, Charles Odii, described it as “an important milestone in our efforts to stimulate economic growth and drive prosperity by enhancing SME access to finance. We believe that the financial support, which comes at a very competitive rate, will help SMEs expand operations, hire additional employees, and contribute to an overall upswing in beneficial trade and economic activities.”
But giving an update on the issue four months after, the spokesperson said a software application had been developed to smoothen the process and limit human interference on the credibility of the process.
He however, added that submission of CAC certificate and tax identification number was needed to identify fake applicants and ensure the funds is given to the right persons.
Hear him, “Concerning the N5bn loan for small businesses, We have developed an app and it is ready now. We are now taking submissions via the software application. Everyone is expected to download it, put in their business plan and every other detail. Then, they would be evaluated on the app.
“We had to move to an app to avoid human interference because almost everyone had a brother or a sister who tried to influence the process. So, it is better to register via the application, upload the Corporate Affairs Commission certificate, Tax Identification Number and other necessary documents. Once that process is fulfilled, the request will be evaluated and those qualified will get a reply immediately but if we had continued with former procedure, the process may be influenced.
“We also noticed that most applicants do not have their CAC certificate and that is a very important document to be submitted. Some persons have claimed not to have these certificate but we have insisted that it would be a very important criteria to receive the loan or they would be ineligible. We have promised to be transparent about this initiative and that promise will be kept.”
When asked about the status of applicants who had registered earlier, Moshood explained that those applicants must start the process again using the newly developed app in order to be considered for disbursement.
He stated, “Everyone that initially applied for the grant would have to do it again. During the former procedure, they were not asked serious questions, they were only told to register but now we are asking specific questions on how the money will be utilised, the business turnover per month. It is via those questions we will be able to sort out real businessmen and fake ones.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported that over 200,000 small-scale businesses had earlier signified their interest to obtain the credit facility with successful applicants receiving emails from the bank.
The alarming rate of small scale business mortality in the country has been a reoccurring issue with the SMEDAN DG revealing that around three million businesses were lost due to varying factors such as insecurity, fraud, global competitiveness and lack of ease of doing business in the past few years.
Financial experts had expressed the view that with improved access to finance, more small business will become drivers of economic progress and important contributors to employment as well as economic and export growth.