Looking to Scale your Business Through 5 SME Loan Schemes

With the persistent narrative around lack of access to quality loans for Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SME) coupled with the fact that they play a pivotal role in driving the economy and reducing unemployment, it is disheartening to find that these small businesses still suffer from inadequate funding.

Fidelity Bank PLC is however changing this narrative with its diverse loan offerings designed to help small business owners scale their ventures. Some of these offerings include:

The Commercial Support Overdraft

The Commercial Support Overdraft, also known as CSO, is a 30-day finance facility usually given to trading SMEs to help them meet short-term financing needs. SMEs have the opportunity of accessing overdrafts to the limit of N3million.

However, only MSMEs who deal in fast-moving consumer goods and have very short cash conversion cycles are eligible for this offering.

Traders Support Facility (TSF)

The TSF is a short term loan that lasts for only 180 days. Like the Commercial Support Overdraft, this offering is available to only MSMEs that trade fast-moving consumer goods. The difference is that MSMEs can only access this option in well-organised market clusters like APT Jewelries market, Alaba and the Plumbing materials market.

Fidelity Distributors’ Finance Scheme

This loan programme is tailored to enable distributors of fast-moving consumer goods pre-approved by the bank to access funds for easy stock acquisition or replenishment. An exciting feature of this loan programme is that it is not location bound. Under this programme, distributors can access up to N100 million monthly for an entire year.

Fidelity EduLoan

This loan offer is designed to provide working capital and expansion finance to private schools that operate accounts with Fidelity Bank and are registered with recognised Ministries of Education.

Educational institutions that take advantage of these loans can access up to N150 million in loans depending on what the funds are needed for. Furthermore, loans under this category run for as long as 36 months, giving the institutions sufficient time to maximise the funds accessed and pay back to the bank.

For schools to take advantage of these loans, they must have been in operation for at least three years.

Fidelity Pharmacy Support Facility (FPSF)

This is an MSME focused loan product that aims to provide capital to duly incorporated community pharmacies to secure drugs for sale. Pharmacies that wish to secure this loan must have been in operation for at least two years, licensed by the Pharmacists Registration Council of Nigeria and certified members of the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN). Under this loan scheme, retail pharmacies can access loans of up to N5 million and wholesalers N10 million.

Fidelity Bank’s loan initiatives have been a lifeline for many MSMEs, which will have otherwise gone into extinction in Nigeria’s harsh economic terrain. This has thus made the bank the go-to financial institution for discerning entrepreneurs.