Jaiz Bank Plc has said it is awaiting the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria to roll out new financing products that will enable small and medium-scale enterprises to access loans without traditional collateral requirements.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Dr Haruna Musa, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday after the bank’s 14th Annual General Meeting.
Musa said the proposed products, targeted at SMEs and retail customers, would allow the bank to assess borrowers based on their cash flows rather than physical collateral, a move aimed at expanding access to finance and deepening financial inclusion,According to him, the bank has already developed the products and is waiting for regulatory approval before launching them
We have developed an SME-friendly product just awaiting the approval of our regulator, the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Once that is achieved, we will be doing cash-flow lending. We’ll assess you based on your actual cash flow, either with Jaiz Bank or with any other bank, and then we can lend to you depending on the capacity that you have,” he said.
He added that the financing model would reduce the burden of collateral requirements on small businesses. “Instead of that collateral structure, we might end up getting loan guarantees and signed GSI mandates. With that, we intend to see a lot of improvement in support for SMEs,” Musa said.