Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the key economic drivers in Nigeria. However, access to funds has been one of the issues affecting growth of this essential sector of the Nigerian Economy.
While government and relevant agencies have set up credit
facilities to mitigate the finance challenges faced by small businesses, many
still struggle to meet up with loan requirements, with collateral being a major
stumbling block.
In the ecommerce sector, Jumia, the leading online
marketplace in Africa, is taking initiative with Jumia Lending, to help
entrepreneurs on its platform grow their businesses through strategic
partnership with lenders who make loans easily available.
One of such partnerships is with Lendigo Nigeria, a lending
platform that offers business loans without collateral.
Country Manager Lendigo Nigeria, Seun Oyediran |
“Our partnership with Jumia Lending helps build trust with
sellers and allows us to have access to their transaction data which allows us
to be able to make good credit decisions and finance their growth. We have been
actively partnering with Jumia since 2017, and we are happy to continue
financing the growth of their sellers,” he said.
A Jumia seller, who is one of the beneficiaries of Jumia
Lending programme, Jumoke Akinsanaya, said the collateral-free loans has
granted her business direct access to big companies, facilitated bulk purchase
and improved her business workforce. “I
have been using the Jumia Lending platform to grow my business. At the
beginning, we were doing it in bits and few times we were able to process our
orders when we got them.
“But with Jumia lending, we’ve been able to buy in bulk and
now have access to companies to purchase directly from them and that has helped
expand our store. When we started, we had 300 assortments, but now we have 900.
I have been able to increase my workforce as well. We started with six staff
and we are about twelve now,” the owner of Deeski.com said.
Explaining what qualifies a seller for the loan, the Head
Consumer Services, Jumia, Austin Okpagu, said sellers on the platform can apply
for the loan from a list of Jumia financial service partners with their sale
history, and get the loan within 48 hours. “Jumia lending is a lending
marketplace that allows Jumia sellers to easily request for a loan from any of
our financial service partners based simply on their past revenue on Jumia,” he
said.
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