Reasons Most Small Business Owners Don’t Get Loans From Microfinance Banks
By Emmanuel Udom
National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria says there are 41million MSMSEs in our country.
Yet, fact-check reveals that only 1% of these figures are able to get loans running into millions of naira from various microfinance banks.
With an estimated population of 200million people, 80% of them living below the poverty line. It appears on face value to be doomsday for the self-acclaimed giant of Africa.
Micro, small and medium scale enterprise owners started out with great zeal to succeed in their various lines of businesses.
Regrettably, however, most of them could crash, two, three, five or 10 years down the line.
Take it, leave, government and private people at various levels have over the years, set-up agencies that regulate and encourage the development of micro and small business concerns in the country, with a huge market for potential and other investors.
Some of these agencies are: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) as well as ta Association of Microfinance Banks Operators.
However, research and consultations, zeroing-in, on the key factors that are militating against small business owners getting loans from microfinance banks are quite revealing.
Some of these factors are:
1 Characters of business owners.
2 Lack of saving cultures.
3 Lack of business structures
4 Shallow experiences on chosen line(s) of business
5 Diversions of loans collected.
6 None registration of business name with CAC or LG.
7 Over ambitious
8 Running businesses with personal names
In the weeks ahead, we will pick on each of these factors and do detailed write-ups with practical examples from various parts of the country.
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