The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), is a government agency that was created to promote and develop the MSME sector in the country. One of its responsibilities is to enable MSMEs to access funds and other critical resources.
SMEDAN Loans
Most MSMEs have a hard time accessing loans. A majority of these businesses are operating as informal entities and may not have a verifiable profile or business rating. Hence, lenders consider them high risk and do not have confidence in extending loans to them. As a result, these enterprises are unable to access affordable credits.
The establishment of SMEDAN is intended to bridge these gaps. By making it easier for small businesses to access funds, in line with the federal government's ease of doing business.
SMEDAN usually partners with multiple providers. Such as government and private organizations to provide appropriate loans to eligible MSMEs.
They do not directly provide finances to businesses. But instead, link businesses to loan providers, or jointly partner with these agencies to provides credit facilities.
Some agencies that have partnered with SMEDAN in the past include the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Bank of Industry (BOI), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
These agencies are usually responsible for loan disbursement, while SMEDAN provides investment information, advisory services, and entrepreneurship training.
SMEDAN Loan Registration
Although all businesses operating legally in Nigeria can submit a loan application, to be eligible for a loan while applying through SMEDAN, you must have a SMEDAN number.
A SMEDAN number is a unique number used to identify all MSMEs registered with the agency.
To get this number, you must register your business on the agency's website. After successful registration, you will then be issued a certificate and Number. To learn more about this, see our post on SMEDAN Registration.
After Registering, you can then login to your portal to see if there are any available loans you are eligible to apply for, usually through a SMEDAN loan Registration form.
There is also a dedicated news section on the agency's website where all programs, loans, grants, and other development are shared. So this can be an alternative for those not currently registered to check for available loans. But like I mentioned earlier, you will have to register your business if you want to access these funds.
SMEDAN Loan Requirements
The requirements for a SMEDAN loan are not inexorable. But will often change depending on the funding partner, or the objective the agency wish to achieve by providing businesses with such funds.
For example, if SMEDAN considers agriculture to be a critical sector, it might decide to set up an intervention program to provide loans for businesses in this sector. In this case, a requirement for the loan might be for a business to be in the agricultural sector.
In the same line, if it considers other businesses like those in the creative industry or manufacturing to be important, it can decide to set up funding program for businesses in these industries. Which of course will all have different requirements and eligibilities.
But a common requirement for all businesses to access loans from SMEDAN is to have a SMEDAN number.
How To Get A SMEDAN Loan
To summarize it quite simply, to access a loan through SMEDAN,
- Vsit the SMEDAN website to register your business if you haven't already.
- log in to your portal or click on the news or Programme section on the website to see a list of available loans
- Read the loan requirements
- Apply for loan
SMEDAN Loan App
SMEDAN also have a mobile app that pretty much does everything that can be found on the main website. Including access to a loan, MSME news, Registration, contact, etc. you can download the SMEDAN mobile app here.
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