Diamond Bank reiterates commitment to empower MSMEs, disburses N25bn to MSMEs in two years

DIAMOND Bank Plc has reiterated its commitment to empower the micro small medium enterprises (MSMEs) as it has so far disbursed N25 billion to the sector.The Head of Proposition for MSMEs of the Bank, Mrs. Chidinma Lawanson, who disclosed this at the 'Diamond BusinessXtra Enterprise Series,' said the bank will focus on creating value for businesses that fall within this sector henceforth because they are largely ignored within the banking industry and the economy at large.She disclosed that as part of plan to restructure the MSMEs sector to contribute to the economy, the bank has developed a guarantee focus by creating a current account product that makes it easy for over 85, 000 entrepreneurs with the bank to gain access to loans without being charge on transactions.She added thatbeneficiaries of the current account for MSMEs have grown from 7000 customers to more than 85, 000 customers within a period of two years and it is still growing.'So far, we have given loans of over N25 billion to over 7000 customers in Nigeria since the inception and these loans are strictly between N1million to N10 million. Most of these customers utilise the loans in buying fixed assets or stock of tradable goods and they do pay back. The repayment levels have been very high,' she said.Lawanson said that although there are more than 10 million registered MSMEs in Nigeria but those accessing the bank's loan have continued to contribute significantly to the country's GDP.She identified lack of access to funds as a major factor militating against the growth of MSMES, adding that further plans by the bank to support the sector's drive is to regularly organise the Enterprise Series seminars to tutor entrepreneurs on how best to improve their business for growth with available funds.She further noted that the bank has concluded plans to unfold new dimension to strengthen the sector, 'because first, most entrepreneurs are unstructured while others may not have the necessary collateral, some might not be well educated to exactly say what they need the funds for or have the discipline to handle the loans. But we have been able to structure such products that we give to them in a way that it is plug-and- play; it is simple for them to gain access to those funds, because if you look back at what they have done so far, so their businesses would have existed to at least for one year.
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