Wema Bank Plc, Nigeria’s oldest indigenous bank, has urged Small and Medium-Scale Enterprise (SME) owners and managers to explore the different funding opportunities that the bank offers to help their businesses grow. This call was made during a business growth and innovation conference for SMEs held in Enugu in collaboration with the Enugu State Government.
Over 250 SMEs attended the conference, which featured renowned speakers such as macroeconomic analyst Samuel Oyekanmi, Deji Rahman, CEO and Lead Consultant of Reap and Arcenciel, Sola Adesakin, a finance coach and Lead Consultant of Smart Stewards Limited, and Iyore Ogbuigwe, a strategy consultant specializing in Sales Force Management and Lead of Ultravantage Solutions.
The two-day event, held in February 2023, was designed to upskill and equip business owners and managers in Enugu and its environs with the knowledge and skills they need to accelerate the growth of their companies. Strategy and innovation were covered, as well as digital transformation, sales and marketing, and financial management.
Wema Bank’s Head of SME Banking, Arthur Nkemeh, explained that the bank’s interventions aimed at facilitating the growth and profitability of the economy’s SMEs are divided into three categories: SME Advisory & Non-Financial Services, Business Account Products, and Loan Products.
“Our loan products include the Business Support Facility, which is intended to assist businesses in financing stock and other business needs; the School Support Facility, which assists schools in meeting recurring expenditures; the Pharma Loan, which is intended to assist pharmacy store owners with working capital; and the Green Energy Finance Facility, which provides affordable financing for SMEs seeking to acquire clean energy solutions such as solar panels, inverters, and batteries.”
“Others are the Medi Loan, designed to meet working capital needs of private hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic laboratories; and the DBN Loan, a partnership with the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), that provides funding to SMEs at a very affordable rate and engenders inclusive growth. All of these facilities provide SMEs with amounts ranging from N100,000 to N720 million, with terms ranging from one month to six years. As a result, I urge SMEs’ owners and managers to take advantage of these products,” Nkemeh continued.
He also informed the entrepreneurs in attendance that, in addition to the various loan facilities offered by the bank to SMEs, the bank also offers educational products such as the Wema SME Business School, Business Edge Masterclass, Quarterly Webinars, and monthly Newsletters that could assist them in updating their knowledge in order to achieve growth and profitability.
“Our educational products help SMEs overcome most of the challenges that they face, especially in the area of funding. “We address some of the major factors that prevent SMEs from accessing funding, such as weak organizational and business structure, poor financial management and bookkeeping practices, lack of innovation, unproven business model or plan, no clear path to profitability, key-man risk and absence of a succession plan, poor marketing strategies, and so on,” he concluded.
