Awards for Excellence 2020
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Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of the Nigerian economy. A survey carried out in 2018 by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics estimated there are over 41 million firms with 199 employees or fewer in Nigeria, accounting for almost 50% of GDP. MSMEs provide almost 60 million jobs, equal to 86% of the national workforce.
But MSMEs in Nigeria often struggle to access finance; a survey by the International Finance Corporation found that only 31% have ever obtained a loan from a financial institution.
Access Bank, under chief executive Herbert Wigwe, acquired Nigerian SME champion Diamond Bank in March 2019, creating the largest retail bank in Africa and Nigeria’s largest bank by assets. It provides comprehensive services for Nigeria’s SMEs and is Euromoney’s best bank for SMEs in Africa this year.
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Herbert Wigwe |
Over the 12 months to December 2019, Access Bank deployed over N22 billion ($57.3 million) to help more than 11,000 enterprises grow and create jobs. It provides financial services to SMEs with a turnover not exceeding N5 billion and has over 750,000 customers. It intends to sign an additional one million SMEs by the end of 2020.
According to a European Investment Bank report, west Africa’s women are less likely to be engaged in entrepreneurship than men and are underrepresented in the MSME workforce.
The World Bank says that a fifth of companies covered by its Enterprise Survey are owned or part-owned by women.
Access Bank’s financing programme, W Power Loan, seeks to readdress this balance by offering financing for women owners at below market rates. More than a third of Access Bank’s N22 billion of financing went to female-led or owned MSMEs. The bank also supported over 700 healthcare businesses with N7 billion in financing last year.
AccessBank also organizes MSME clinics, capacity-building programmes and networking opportunities. It reported a 600% increase in the reach of its capacity-building programmes to 24,000 participants in 2019, up from 4,000 in 2018.
