Accion MfB Disburses N33bn to MSMEs, Targets Branch Expansion

Sunday Ehigiator

Accion Microfinance Bank has revealed that it disbursed over N33 billion in loans to Medium Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) in 2024, as it aims to increase the number to N60 billion in 2025, establish a presence in four new states, and heavily deploy the use of technology in servicing its customers across the country,

Speaking to journalists during the bank’s ‘2024 Annual Financial Inclusion Seminar’, themed, “Digital Lending: A Path to Financial Inclusion or a Barrier for the Informal Sector?” the MD/CEO Accion MfB, Taiwo Joda, noted that, “For this year, we’ve done an average of N3 billion per month. So we’ve done about N33 billion. But in the last 10 years, we’ve done about N250 billion. And they are very small borrowers. Our average loan is N700,000 to a customer, which is less than $200.

“So next year, we intend to do N60 billion, targeted at MSMEs. That’s almost double what we did this year. And we will double it easily for two reasons. First, even for customers to maintain their business at the same level, they need more because of the situation. And then we intend to also grow our customer base.

“And next year, we’re going to four new locations. So we’re going to open branches in Kwara, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna State. So as you move there, you deploy technology, and you acquire new customers.”

Speaking on digital lending of the bank, towards the Central Bank of Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive, Joda noted that the concept of digital financial inclusion is about giving convenience and access to the customer, either to do transactions, to take loans, or to save money.

According to him, “It’s something that is there that, if you don’t do it, you become a dinosaur. You just waste away because everybody wants to do things at their convenience, in their room. So we can say that digital lending now is to make it easy for customers to borrow. Digital lending allows you access to a loan in 10 minutes.

“So rather than bring your long letter, and everything you need to access a loan in the past, the digital lending has, at the back end, complexities, and that has machine reading, that has some level of augmented intelligence that profiles you, look at your phone, how much you recharge your phone, look at the debts that are coming to your account or not, and is able, in two minutes, to tell from the back end, through your profile, to the front end, to the decision maker, that this gentleman is worth N20,000, or N500,000, and so you can give him N20,000, N500,000, or N200,000.”