Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) are businesses that maintain revenues, assets, or number of employees below a certain limit and threshold. They represent 90% of businesses and generate more than 50% of employment worldwide according to the World Bank statistics. Though small, they play a big role in the economy, outnumbering large firms considerably by employing vast numbers of people.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) “SMEs are critical to the development of any economy as they possess great potentials for employment generation, improvement of
local technology, output diversification, development of indigenous entrepreneurship and forward integration with large-scale industries.”
Of all the issues affecting SMEs, funding or capital is most likely at the top of the list. The most common sources of funding including venture capital, savings, family, friends, and loans are unable to match the rate at which the SMEs are springing up.
SME loans are meant to help small and medium businesses expand or finance their daily operations. These loans can be used to acquire equipment and inventory and to augment working capital.
As a leading financial institution, FirstBank is committed to harnessing the huge opportunities available in the SME sector and empowering them for growth and sustainability with the range of bespoke financial solutions made for them as shown below.
SME Product Financing
Loan facilities to support the growth of SME businesses with required funds
- Commercial Mortgage: This is designed to meet the funding needs of established small and medium-scale enterprises in viable businesses to acquire business/office premises. This product is structured to part-finance the asset as the building itself is taken as the collateral.
- Operational Vehicle Finance: This is intended to provide part finance to ease the acquisition of brand-new vehicle(s) essential for the day-to-day running of business activities.
- Petroleum Dealership Finance is created to offer working capital finance to filling stations with a DPR License for the purchase of kerosene (DPK), petrol (PMS), and diesel (AGO). This product facilitates ac-cess to financing opportunities to purchase products at competitive rates.
- Import Finance is targeted at SMEs involved in the importation of raw materials or finished goods.
- Oil and Gas Contract Finance is designed to meet the funding requirements of indigenous oil and gas companies.
- Cement Distributorship Finance provides flexible short-term loans to meet the working capital needs of distributors of major cement manufacturing companies.
- Invoice Discounting Finance is designed to support customers who are contractors or suppliers to repu-table companies operating in Nigeria.
- Telecommunications Distributorship Finance for telecoms distributors to enhance distribution and sales of merchandise goods and products.
- FMCG Key Distributorship Finance provides structured finance to distributors to meet working capital needs.
- Secured Term Loans are designed to provide finance to execute capital projects such as acquiring new technology, asset replacement, etc.
- FirstGem Funds is a gender support single-digit loan for women in certain SMEs, to enable them to meet working capital and asset finance needs.
Apart from all the above, you can also be a member of FirstBank’s SME Connect. An initiative where SMEs are equipped with resources, webinars, offers, products, and services aimed at helping their businesses thrive.
We are passionate about helping SMEs grow. Visit www.firstbanknigeria.com and discover numerous ways to grow your business.
