Why Business Owners Are Not Qualified To Access Loans
Thinking of getting a loan for your business? Here are the main reasons why business owners are not qualified to access loans in Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) recently say there are many funds available for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, but many business owners are not qualified to access them.
They say lack of proper documentation, absence of financial history, and inability to structure their businesses, among others, are responsible for poor access to funds at financial institutions. Mike Oye, head of SME Funds at BoI, said many Nigerians set up businesses without thinking that they would ever take loans, which is why many of them do not take accounting services and documentation seriously.
“Take for instance, someone making shoes who come asking for a loan. He says he sponsored himself through school from producing shoes. I believe him because when I ask him questions like, where do you source your leather? How do you sell? He is answering me off the top of his head, so I know really that he has been in the business for like five or six years. But unfortunately, my computer is completely emotionless, as he does not have sales record, bank account, and receipts.”
Oye said this at an event organised by the Arts and Civics Table Organisation (TACT), a non-governmental organisation, themed, ‘SME Sustainability & Growth Conference 2018’. Adebisi Adedeji, head of development finance office at the CBN, also said there is some kind of disconnect between the lenders and the SMEs sub sectors in Nigeria. According to Adedeji, there are several ways of looking at these challenges.
“It is an orientation and a training problem, orientation problem because I have had instances where I spoke to Nigerian graduates who had been home for five, six years waiting to get a white collar job and doing nothing. Nigerians are not trained to create their own jobs or wealth. Most people’s mind-set is to get out of school and get a good job in an office apartment fitted with an AC. That is the first primary challenge.”
He stressed the need for an average young Nigerian to have a change of attitude tailored towards starting up their own businesses. Charles Anyanwu, head, SMEs at LSETF cited lack of entrepreneurial training on the part of most graduates as one of the reasons why business owners are not qualified to access loans in Nigeria; stating that some accounting graduates cannot even draft sample business plans. Anyanwu explained that CBN has encouraged academic institutions to factor in entrepreneurship in their curriculum and a few of them have done so, especially private universities.
“You are running a business for ten years, no documentation, no paper trail, no bank account for the business? All transactions are in person. It does not enter your bank account and you want to access a facility? So, these are the things that we really need to engage people about,” Anyanwu said at a panel conversation. On the way to go for SMEs in Nigeria – Africa’s largest economy to be eligible for loan funds, the stakeholders in the conference raised different ideas which included formalizing their business structures to enable them gain recognition by government.
Read: 5 Best Banks For Business Account In Nigeria
According to the survey from the conference, only 4.2% of 37.07 million MSMEs in Nigeria have been able to access loans or overdrafts from financial institutions; while new entrants or start-ups find it practically impossible to access business finance from Nigerian banks. So if you have a business and you need a loan to boost your growth efforts, then you need to get started by learning daily bookkeeping accounting. You can also employ the service of a professional accounting firm to do the jobs for you.
If you’re just starting out your new business venture or you already have an established enterprise, Abbakin can help you setup your accounting department and recommend accounting software for you. We have specialists in bookkeeping and accounting management services for small and medium sized businesses.
So whether you are looking for honest accounting guidance, tax returns, or payroll advice, you will get a dedicated accountant who may visit your office location in person or do everything online by going over your details via phone calls and email communications.
Leave a Reply