Primera Microfinance Bank, a licenced financial institution announced in a statement that in 2022 it had provided more than N5 billion in funding to SMEs.
The bank added that it achieved the achievement by deliberately focusing on key SME growth sectors to boost their commercial and economic activity. In order to help entrepreneurs in the economy weather economic headwinds and overcome difficult financial obstacles, it promised to retain adequate funding lines.
Approximately 26% of the financing lines were made out to female entrepreneurs in the current fiscal year, up from 13% in 2021, in recognition of the crucial role that gender diversity and financial inclusion for women play in fostering sustainable economic growth, it said.
In addition, it stated that the credit lines were intended to help small and medium-sized business owners run, expand, and start new ventures to compete in the market.
The Chief Executive Officer, Primera Microfinance Bank, Mr Unwana Esang, speaking on the development said, “At Primera MFBank, we are solidly committed to building the capacity of Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises in this economy to ensure they thrive, create wealth for our people and add value to society.
“This is critical because according to available data, over 99 per cent of registered businesses in Nigeria are MSMEs and they contribute 46 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product, this is in addition to providing over 87 per cent of employment in our economy.
“So, we are very deliberate in our focus to grow this very important dimension of our economy by leveraging one of our must-win objectives of significantly improving customer and stakeholder satisfaction.”
He added that, “Our bank, through our Primera Business proposition, is proud to be championing the cause of SMEs in our economy, and 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.
“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.”
