Access Bank Launches YouThrive, Sets aside N50bn to Empower over 700,000 MSMEs

Access Bank Plc has launched the “YouThrive” initiative that would empower 700,000 micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria with N50 billion loans.

This was announced by the Deputy Managing Director of Access Bank, Mr. Victor Etuokwu, at the bank's head office in Lagos, recently.

Etuokwu, revealed that MSMEs that would benefit from the programme would undergo trainings to enhance their capacity to optimally make use of the loan.

He said: “Access Bank is set to financially empower over 700,000 youth MSMEs and to achieve this; we have set aside N50bn to lend to them at a huge, discounted interest rate.

“To be eligible to access this loan, all applicants must be within the ages of 21 to 40 years.

“The Youthrive' is a transformative initiative designed by Access Bank to empower, uplift, and accelerate the next generation of MSMEs. In the next four years we will empower 4 million youth, one million per year.

“It would not just be about lending, we are holding various capacity-building activities for them, and the curriculum will be centred on technology, creatives, business management and skill acquisition,” a statement quoted him to have explained.

The Head, Emerging Businesses, Access Bank, Ms. Chioma Ogwo, also reiterated Etuokwu's comments at the Inaugural Job Creation and MSME Quarterly Communications Forum that was hosted in Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and MSME.

Ogwo said: “In four years, we hope to empower four million people, which is one million each year. We have a business exchange program for the beneficiaries that would enable the SMEs to go and exchange ideas with their counterparts in other countries.

“Every year, 700,000 would be given access to financing, and 300,000 would be trained.

“After that, we will take the best advice from the best and return to Nigeria to implement it.

“There is also going to be employment opportunities as 1000 outstanding individuals who receive these trainings by the Bank and its holding companies will be recruited within the Tech space, the Access corporation ecosystem and other partner companies.”

Speaking on the initiative, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and MSMEs, Mr. Temitola AdekunleJohnson, said the initiative by the Access Bank would help address the issue of access to affordable loans by small businesses.