Small and Medium Scale Enterprises have enjoyed N5 billion in financing from Primera Microfinance Bank in 2022.
According to The Punch, Primera, a fully licensed and technology-driven finance institution that offers financial solutions to businesses and individuals disclosed this in a statement.
The bank in the statement explained that it achieved the feat by strategically targetting key growth sectors in the SME space to stimulate their commercial and economic growth.
Primera also promised to provide robust financing lines to entrepreneurs in the economy, to help them weather economic headwinds and surmount critical financial challenges.
In 2022, about 26 per cent of the financing was given to female entrepreneurs for its recognition of the key role that gender diversity and financial inclusion play, doubling the 13 per cent share recorded in 2021.
It added that the funding lines were focused on enabling small and medium-scale entrepreneurs sustain and grow their businesses as well as empower them to launch new businesses to compete in the marketplace.
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.”
