Ecobank Funds MSMEs to Drive Nigeria’s Economic Recovery

By Ahmed Rahma

The pace of Nigeria’s economic recovery has been increased with the provision of N50 billion loan to be disbursed to the Micro, Small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) by Ecobank Nigeria.

The lender recently secured a N50 billion credit facility and according to its Managing Director, Mr Patrick Akinwuntan, the fund would be deployed to support MSMEs and small corporates in the country.

He explained that the move will be very useful to these segments where sourcing funds is quite difficult and access to bank loans is considered as the biggest obstacle to growth.

“The proceeds of the financing will support MSMEs in the country and is particularly useful for this segment where access to bank loans is considered as the biggest impediment to growth.

“As MSMEs currently account for about half of the country’s gross domestic product and circa 96 per cent of the total number of businesses, this support will definitely make a positive impact,” he said

The MD noted that as an MSME friendly bank, they have been helping them with the capacity building; providing simple and easy access to loans in various sectors including manufacturing, agriculture, creative industry, healthcare, general commerce and services.

“Our robust digital platforms help facilitate transaction convenience for our clients particularly during this Covid pandemic and helped with the ease of doing business.

“Our award-winning Omnilite digital banking platform helps businesses with a wide array of payment services electronically, while our POS machines and Ecobankpay solutions are widely deployed to assist with collections,” he stated.

Also speaking, the Executive Director of Commercial Banking, Mrs Carol Oyedeji, affirmed that Ecobank Nigeria has been at the forefront in supporting small businesses.

She stated that, “The bank has entered strategic partnerships with various development institutions to support both funding and risk-sharing for MSME lending across various sectors of the economy. Small business owners can therefore avail themselves of this opportunity presented to grow and further expand.”

Ecobank was recently named among the top 3 banks for SMEs in the Customer Experience Satisfaction survey conducted by a leading audit and professional services company, KPMG Nigeria. Prior to this, the bank was given the BusinessDay award for Best Agric Bank in Nigeria.