By Destiny Eseaga

Wema Bank Plc said it has entered into partnerships with Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to improve access to cheaper funds for small businesses in Nigeria, recently.

SegunOloketuyi, GMD Wema Bank

To this end, the bank said MSMEs and businesses in all segments can access up to N153 million and N610 million, respectively, from the bank.

A statement by Funmilayo Falola of the bank’s Brands and Marketing Department, said under the arrangement, DBN will fund MSMEs through participating financial institutions, of which Wema Bank is one the selected institutions.

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The bank noted that it has prioritizes support for smaller businesses and has started disbursing loans to both new and existing MSMEs customers.

The statement read: “While access to cheap funds is great, access to new markets offers even more promise. Expanding into new markets via traditional means requires substantial capital outlay, which smaller businesses lack.

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“To ensure MSMEs can scale efficiently, Wema Bank has unveiled a simple, self-onboarding payment gateway platform for merchants to receive payments on their website seamlessly. This ensures small businesses can market their products and services to a wider community of potential customers, digitally, without having to incur additional cost on setting up new offices and managing operations from several locations.

“The Nigerian economy is driven, significantly, by a vast number of SMEs and as a financial institution committed to wealth creation, the bank seems keen on changing the prospects of these businesses and appears unrelenting its pursuit to build the smaller businesses of today into reputable multinationals of tomorrow.”