AGUELE-TRIMNEL: FEMALE BUSINESS OWNERS REPAY LOANS BETTER THAN MEN

It is possible for also get another loan through LSETF if all the criteria are met.

Since inception, how has loan recovery been for women under this initiative?

Women pay back their loans and because we have been in this business long enough, we know that with women loan comes mandatory training and financial learning because you cannot run a business without knowing your profit, loss and what is coming in and out. So, if you are granted a loan, it comes with mandatory training because we know that if women get properly trained, the chances of them paying back are much higher. So, if you have loaned N500,000 and in one year you have repaid the loan, we would grant you more loans to grow and scale your business. It not a case where we just want to collect their money, we want the business to grow. Statistics have shown that most small businesses are the biggest employers of our youth in Nigeria. So, we have to make sure we get these companies to a position where they are sustainable. So, for us, capacity training is very critical to this program. Women pay back their loans better than men. Our non-performing loans is about two per cent. This is really good for female customers and that is why we are stepping forward to give these women more access to finance because they pay back. They know that their survival depends on the businesses they run. So, we have been very fortunate in initiative that one of the areas we don’t worry about is payback. The default is very low.

Also, in our W academy, we work with the women and we have a very close relationship with our customer. We are constantly involved in what they are doing. We are constantly offering them programs and financial training and anything to help grow their business. In some cases, we help with taxation, marketing and whatever would help them to not only grow their business but also pay back their loans. So, the default rate is pretty low and I think we have been very fortunate and we have had a very successful program.

How much loans have been given to women businesses through the W initiative?

In the last six years, we have given out over N500 billion to women businesses in Nigeria. The portfolio is always growing and is a moving part. So far, we have given these loans to about 250,000 women beneficiaries.

Is Access Bank looking at a possibility of extending this form of initiative outside Lagos?

This is a pilot project for Access bank and we want to do this in every state because Access Bank is one of the largest in Africa and we do not only serve in Lagos state, we serve in other communities and we have millions of branches across the country. Lagos state is one of the largest in the country and also an economic viable state and so we want to try it out here first and get it to work. We know it would work and I think it is something we want to replicate in other states. We know that other states are interested but for us, let’s do it right here first and then we can see how we would replicate it.

How much capital is Access bank and LSFET injecting to women businesses in this pilot phase?

We had matching fund. Initially, the matching funds was to be N2 billion from Access bank and N2 billion from Lagos state. But currently because we are just starting about a month ago, we have matching funds of N1 billion from Access bank and N1 billion from Lagos state government which is N2 billion accessible funds for female entrepreneurs at the moment