Access Bank fostering economic growth through SMEs support
By Rosemary Iwuala
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered the engine of a country’s economic growth due to their significant contribution to job creation and poverty alleviation. In Nigeria, some 41 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) currently employ about 59 million people (over 25 percent of the country’s total populace), according to data by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
Despite the significant contribution of SMEs to the Nigerian economy, the segment has been impacted by challenges including limited access to finance, lack of databases, low R&D expenditures, undeveloped sales channels, and low levels of financial inclusion that hinder the growth and development of the sector. However, access to finance has been the major factor holding down SMEs in Nigeria from optimally performing their roles as the engine of growth.
Through the years, Nigeria’s leading tier-1 lender, Access Bank Plc, has initiated several programmes aimed at addressing SMEs’ access to finance as well as other challenges through provision of funds for entrepreneurs, creating market access, among other significant contributions. Only recently, Access Bank partnered with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to empower 20 NYSC corps members across the country with N30 million in grants. The grants were given out to corps members with winning entrepreneurial ideas in Abuja, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo and Rivers States with the star winners receiving N1 million each.
Adaeze Umeh, group head, consumer banking, Access Bank Plc, said the bank has been in a strategic partnership with NYSC since 2016, which further evolved into the launch of ‘Accesspreneur: The NYSC edition’ in February 2021.
“So far, we have completed six editions of Accesspreneur competition, impacting over 390 corps members with over N165 million seed capital. We have also created a Facebook community for all Accesspreneur winners to be able to interact freely amongst themselves and inspire other young people with similar aspirations. The Facebook community has about 5,000 members,” Umeh said during the NYSC Access Bank Accesspreneur competition held in Abuja.
Beyond the Access Bank/NYSC partnership, the bank has remained resolute in its drive to engage and empower MSMEs by providing them access to funds, markets, and knowledge through several other programmes. These include but not limited to the following:
Diamond Business Advantage
In 2019 Access Bank unveiled the Diamond Business Advantage, a business current account to assist emerging businesses scale for growth without worrying about capital to meet operating expenses and other business-related costs. Tailored to meet different funding needs, from basic to growing and established businesses, the Diamond Business Advantage also offers non-financial services such as helping start-ups make better business decisions, manage cost, and assist in structuring their services to meet local and international markets’ demand.
The benefits of the Diamond Business Advantage include access to the full bouquet of borrowing solutions for business growth, access to online and offline business management training and networking opportunities, access to dedicated business partners for business advisory, access to over 50 courses on the SMEZone, and invitation to monthly business webinar and newsletter. There are also non-financial benefits which include sector-specific loan solutions to help meet business needs, capacity building forums to equip entrepreneurs with the knowledge to manage and grow their business, networking and access to market opportunities, business management solutions and learning platforms.
Online account opening platform for unregistered businesses
Access Bank, Nigeria’s largest lender in the SME space, in April 2022 unveiled an online account opening platform for unregistered businesses, a paperless and seamless digital process which allows customers to register their business account within five minutes without visiting a branch.
At the launch of the online account platform, Ayodele Olojede, group head, emergency businesses, Access Bank Plc, said, “As part of our commitment to support entrepreneurs and small business owners, we have created a small seamless digital platform for individuals to obtain an affordable and flexible account for their unregistered businesses which will give them access to digital loans from N250,000 to N10 million,” Olojede said.
Support for women entrepreneurs
While Access Bank strives to empower SMEs in general, the bank sees providing female entrepreneurs with an opportunity to access easy finance, wider market, technical as well as business support to be of fundamental importance. In July 2014, the bank unveiled the “W” initiative, its “commitment to banking women”, in order to boost female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Apart from working towards financial inclusion and liberation for women, the “W” initiative gives participating women and their families access to a wide range of opportunities, including loans and credit facilities, insights on managing finance and increasing productivity, information about several value-adding special offers for the home, specially discounted offers and freebies on health, beauty and fitness.
As at May 2018, Access Bank said the ‘W Initiative’ had provided skills support to 75,000 women in SMEs across the country in 81 locations around 19 states in finance, education, SMEs, event planning, among others. The workshops resulted in increase in the business networks and improved business models of the beneficiaries in spite of the economic constraints. The number of beneficiaries has continued to grow.
Ebi Marketplace in conjunction with SME.NG, others
In November 2021, Access Bank through the “W” Initiative partnered with SME.NG, a gender lens impact investment firm in Nigeria that invests in female-owned SMEs, and other leading institutions, including the Bank of Industry (BOI), LAPO Microfinance Bank, Chapel Hill Denham, and the Impact Investment Foundation Nigeria, to launch the Ebi Marketplace, which consists of an access to capital market, an e-commerce mall and a knowledge market for female entrepreneurs in Nigeria seeking to digitize their businesses. It was conceptualised and developed by SME.NG as a tangible solution to the impact of COVID-19 on female entrepreneurs and aims to close the gender digital divide in Nigeria by supporting women’s digital literacy and financial inclusion, while providing access to capital and markets.
Thelma Ekiyor, managing director of SME.NG, described SME.NG as “an indigenous solutions provider in Nigeria’s SME ecosystem”, saying that Access Bank’s commitment to women through the W initiative makes the bank the ideal partner for the Ebi Marketplace.
“Women in Nigeria establish businesses more than men, but struggle to grow beyond a certain point. We believe we have a strategic role to play in breaking that financial and growth ceiling,” she noted.
Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton programme
Access Bank’s Womenpreneur Pitch-a-ton programme was launched in 2019 as the first women-in-business support initiative of its kind in the industry. Offered by Access Bank’s W Initiative, the programme has so far provided mini-MBA to 200 women entrepreneurs across Africa. Its maiden edition, held in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, provided a free mini-MBA certification for 50 women entrepreneurs in Nigeria as well as financial grants worth N9 million to the top five applicants. The subsequent editions saw the programme being extended to 10 other African countries where Access Bank’s W initiative has its presence.
Applications for this year’s edition opened on July 13 and closed on August 19, 2022. This year’s edition, the 4th in the series, seeks to provide mini-MBA certification to another 100 women entrepreneurs in Nigeria as well as grants worth over N16 million to women SMEs.
15% interest loans to women entrepreneurs
In March this year, Access Bank through its W Initiative announced plans to lend to women at 15 percent interest rate to help them grow their business. Abiodun Olubitan, group head, W Initiative, Access Bank Group, said at the Access Bank International Women’s Day celebration that the bank through the W Initiative hoped to offer over N100 billion as loans to different businesswomen in 2022. She said the bank had given out about N11 billion loans to different female entrepreneurs in the three months to March 2022, and over N100 billion as soft loans to different women in the past eight years.
US-DFC $280m financing for on-lending to SMEs
In furtherance of its commitment to empowering the SME sector, Access Bank in July announced that it signed a commitment letter with International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the US government’s development finance institution, for $280 million in financing to help address the financing gap of at least 4,000 SMEs and advance financial inclusion in Nigeria. It will also encourage the bank’s commitment to supporting women-owned businesses in Nigeria.
Looking ahead
Going forward, Access Bank is not relenting in its commitment to funding entrepreneurs and creating market access for small businesses by putting them in the right community.
During a conversation with customers in the MSME category in Abuja recently, Victor Etuokwu, deputy managing director, Access Bank, said the bank remained resolute in its drive to engage and empower MSMEs by providing access to funds, markets and knowledge in order to enhance their capacities and create networking opportunities for them.
“We intend to be more present and relevant in the lives of our customers than ever, and we want to ensure business owners have easy access to funds to sustain and expand their businesses. We are committed to providing excellent services both online and offline to meet the varied needs of all our customers and create impact in the lives of both individual and MSME customers alike,” Etuokwu said.