Sterling Bank Plc has introduced a new product, Business Support Facility, to aid micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs’) growth in the country.
According to the financial institution, part of the facility was a N50 billion fund it set aside to fund clusters.
Group Head, Retail Assets and Liability, Sterling Bank, Mrs. Benedicta Sadoh, noted that the bank recognised the place of MSMEs in the economy as confirmed by several surveys and research it conducted before the launch of the SME banking project.
She stated that the new product comes with flexible interest rates, adding that customers could access from N5 million to N20 million in loans for non-collateral and collateral loans respectively.
“Also the new product would give customers access to funds in 48 hours. The Business Support Facility is targeted at businesses that generate cash flow daily and the rental is monthly.
“The scheme does not have a fixed interest rate because it is based on a digital score card which is a scoring process where information about the prospective customer is used to determine the applicable interest based on his financial worth.
“MSMEs have a lot of challenges to contend with, particularly in the area of access to finance, in line with the vision of the bank to impact lives and develop solutions, Sterling Bank came up with this initiative”, she said.
She stated further that the scheme was targeted at entrepreneurs to access loans that would meet their urgent business needs, payable over an extended period of 24 months.
“The maximum amount of loan a customer with collateral could get is N20 million while those without collateral could get up to N5 million and the processing time is 48 hours and with minimal documentation.”
