Chairwoman of the Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Lagos chapter, Gertrude Akhimien, has stressed the need for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) to have access to unlimited grants for business growth and profitability.

Ms Akhimien said this during a plenary session at the 2022 Maiden National Conference of MSMEs on Tuesday in Lagos.

Ms Akhimien said in addition to unlimited access to grants, MSMEs also required single-digit interest loans to sustain their businesses.

“What we have here in Nigeria is that you start a business from your home, and in a moment, someone orders 10 of those products and the MSME is trapped looking for loans, thereby hindering business growth,” she revealed.

Fidelity Bank’s head of SME Sales, Moshood Oyewole, said the bank had and would continue to provide programmes for all MSMEs to support their businesses.

Mr Oyewole also stated that the challenge of MSMEs accessing finance was the issue of not having collateral which Fidelity Bank had been able to solve.

“Today, if I want to give a loan or a grant for one to do business, I need to see that he or she is actually doing the business. It is not enough to tell me, ‘look at my shop’,” the banker. “It is enough for me to see an account, either in your name or you have registered the business, and I can see what is going into the account within three or six months.”

(NAN)