The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has reiterated the need for development finance institutions (DFIs) and other stakeholders to reduce access barriers against businesses in the country.
This is to bridge the funding gap for small and medium businesses.
The chamber noted that the majority of Nigerian SMEs have not significantly benefited from available financing opportunities in the country, and that limited funding is one of the major constraints facing businesses especially SMEs, citing the PwC report that the SMEs have a funding gap of about N617billion.
President of the chamber, Mrs. Toki Mabogunje, in a webinar with the theme: ‘Funding Opportunities for Businesses with the Bank of Industry’, said lack of information (on the part of businesses) about the funding schemes offered by different institutions, inability to meet the requirements for funding and contravening application guidelines.
She added that submission of wrong or outdated documents (such as tax certificate, financial reports, CAC registration certificate), poor record keeping and poor credit history, that is failure to service previous facilities prevented business owners from accessing another, are major factors inhibiting many businesses from accessing loans from financial institutions.