Find the best and affordable online loans in Nigeria. Save money by knowing the interest-free loans from loan providers. Loans from CBN, SME loans, Moneylenders, and Microfinance banks
How would you feel if you are able to apply and get a loan within 60 seconds or 24 hours at the comfort of home without paperwork?
In this post, we’ll share with you what you need to do so as to get GTBank QuickCredit loan for your business.
Application link for the Guaranteed Offtake Stimulus Scheme will be activated on February 9, 2021, for business owners in certain categories to submit their application.
The Nigeria Farmers Agro Geo-Cooperative (AGC) beneficiaries are to commence loan repayment in Nasarawa State.
We’ll share with you some of the things you need to put in place before applying for BOI loan.
Bank of Industry is the oldest and largest Development Financial Institution owned by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance.
Below are the key things you need to know before submitting your loan application on BOI portal
It is very important to know that BOI doesn’t finance individual loan application, that isn’t its mandate.
The mandate of the bank is to finance enterprises or companies that duly registered and have a physical address.
The bank has a way of verifying the authenticity of your business registration, as such you are required to provide the registration number for a Limited Liability Company or business name for an enterprise before you can proceed with your application.
The fact that you can submit an online application doesn’t mean your application won’t be scrutinized.
You WILL have to pledge some assets to secure BOI loan or other forms of security subject to adequate coverage of the loan being provided to you.
The following are also accepted as collateral to access the bank’s loan:
You have a nice business idea or your business is already established and making significant progress in profit?
While you might be excited about the progress you’ve made so fat, you must also know that the bank is principally set up to finance industrial equipment used in manufacturing.
BOI loan isn’t meant to finance land and building
The bank doesn’t directly fund your account number. It funds the account of your vendors and suppliers of the equipment that the loan application is for.
This is because the loan is designed to help grow the industry in Nigeria so as to create employment opportunities.
BOI’s loan funding to the SME starts from N5 million. Anything below N5 million is provided on the matching fund platform.
The matching fund is operated in collaboration with various state governments and on BOI Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) scheme which is operated through MicroFinance Banks.
BOI doesn’t provide a loan to a business that just started operation UNLESS you can convince the bank that you have the required experience with a board that is successful in their chosen field.
Your company must be able to provide evidence of at least three years of successful operation.
To access BOI loan, you need to support your application with some documents which will be uploaded on the application portal.
These include:
Evidence of business registration
It is very very important to know how to calculate loan interest: 1) to know if it worth it, 2) if the loan would return more profit on investment to cater for the interest rate.
In this post, we’ll show to calculate how much you’d be paying “on top” of your loan whether it’s personal or to boost your business.
A loan is the amount of money taken by an individual or organisation to support a business or for personal use on the condition that it will be repaid on a specific date with or without interest.
Types:
You agree to pay a certain charge rate. This is common to financial institutions and money lenders.
They make a profit from the interest rate charged on the loan you take. This could come as either secured or unsecured loan. You are the debtor.
Interest-free loans are hard to come by. Governments that want to support SME usually make provision for interest-free to boost small businesses.
When it’s interest-free, it means you only pay the principal (that is the amount borrowed) without additional charges.
This kind of loan isn’t to make a profit-making venture for the lender, but to support the borrower.
=&1=&
After meeting all other requirements of the survival fund payroll, employers (CEO) and employees will have to answer some questions before their accounts are credited by the Central Bank.
We’ll share with you some of the questions disbursement committee of the survival fund will ask you either as an employer or an employee before your account is credited.
READ ALSO: #IGotSurvivalFund: Survival Fund Beneficiaries Shared Testimonies
Apart from is one of the KYC measures, it is to also ensure that the right people who really need the support are getting funded.
The grant is one of the plans of the Economic Sustainability Plan, which is providing financial supporting for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and other businesses that have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the programmes under the survival fund include Payroll Support, Guaranteed Offtake and MSME Grant
The most popular among the programmes right now is the payroll, which is a grant to support vulnerable micro and small enterprises in meeting their payroll obligations in order to safeguard jobs within the MSME space from the shock of the Covid-19
READ ALSO: =&2=&
Under 60 seconds I sent him the list of apps where he could access an online loan in Nigeria without collateral.
In this post, I’ll share a piece of similar useful information with you as I take you on a drive to know the questions you’ll be asked before you could borrow money online in Nigeria.
The point is if you can’t share some information including your location, some loan apps won’t grant your application.
Some of the online platforms where you can get a loan are:
It is very important for the money lender to verify the identity of the borrower. It is the standard process. No one wants to give out a loan to an unknown person.
For you to know what it takes for your loan application to be granted, here are the eligibility requirements online loan firm will normally want you to fulfil;
You must provide your name as it appears on your national identity card or the way it appears on your bank account.
You can’t hide anywhere. If you tried to play smart, you WILL be caught. Be real. No lies.
Underage persons are not eligible to take loan, that’s one of the reasons an online money lender would want to know your date of birth. This is necessary to be sure that you are not a teenager.
Address
SEIFAC is one of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) rolled out by the Central Bank of Nigeria in a bid to support local farmers with funds so as to boost local production of what we consume.
In one of our publications, we highlighted the key requirements for you to enrol for the anchor’s programme.
To avoid any sorts of technicality, SEIFAC is a cooperative of Smallholder Farmers by Smallholder Farmers for Smallholder.
Meaning you form a cooperative among yourself provided you a smallholder farmer in your community.
This is where it becomes very interesting…
Usually, farmers prepare for raining season ahead of a plantation. Some of the activities farmers do before the raining reason include:
That’s why SEIFAC launched data collation ahead of time for the 2021/2022 Wet Cropping Season.
The smallholder farmers will farm in Agricultural Production Clusters (Agro-PCs) so that their challenges could adequately be tackled. That’s the significance of Agro-PC.
The idea behind the programme is for farmers to leverage on their comparative cost advantage.
As such the targeted crops include:
If you are interested, membership is opened to the following people:
=&3=&
He was more worried because some of his colleagues he assisted in the loan application were successful.
Their NMFB accounts have been credited. They are now one of the hundreds of CBN loan beneficiaries in Nigeria.
If you fall into the category of Hazeem (not real name) who applied but got no response from Nirsal Microfinance bank, don’t give up.
In this post, we’ll share with you other funding opportunities you can apply in, most especially if you manage agro-business and some of the questions you need to ask yourself why your loan was not successful.
In reviewing why your application was not successful, you need to ask yourself these important questions:
1) Ask yourself: Is it a loan that requires business registration (CAC) and other documentation?
2) Did I show evidence of tax payment if it’s funding that requires you to show your TIN?
3) Did I enrol and have the Entrepreneurial Development Institute (EDI) certificate if it’s CBN-backed funding?
4) Did I get SMEDAN registration number? It’s FREE, you can check our guide on how to get SMEDAN registration number.
5) Is it geopolitical-based funding? If government funding is geopolitically based, then you have to wait for the turn of your zone.
6) Did I check my loan application status for the next step before the expiration of the application?
If you have adequately sort what the issues are, you can proceed to explore other loan opportunities available.
Here are some of them:
Are you operating micro, small and medium enterprises? If yes, then the MSME loan is there for you to apply.
You can apply for this opportunity either through the NMFB or through the Bank of Industry (BOI).
This is Agric-Business Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme aimed at supporting local production of what we consume in Nigeria. These Loans are provided by the CBN to support your agribusiness
SEIFAC is one of the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) which means Smallholder Economic Interest Farmers Agricultural Cooperative.
You can also apply for SEIFAC project to gain access to government loans.
You can also apply for the Creative Industry Financing Initiative loan. You can talk to NMFB, Access bank, GT bank, and other commercial banks that are participating in the loan disbursement.
A few days ago, the Minister of Youth and Sports Sunday Dare said that close to N200,000,000 were disbursed to youth with brilliant business ideas.
If you applied for the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) but your application wasn’t successful, there is good news for you:
If you are not above 35 years, the minister made it known in one of his speeches that there are provisions for youth funds in the ministry 2021 budget.
This is significant. It means their lots to you can benefit from as we move fully into the year.
Another great initiative of the government you can apply for is the Accelerated Agriculture Development Scheme which is supported by Nigeria’s apex bank.
One of the core objectives of the AADS is to increase agricultural production towards food security, job creation and economic diversification
If you are among the 500,000 exited beneficiaries, you stand a chance of benefiting from one of the options being looked into by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development.
The ministry said in 2020 that it would partner CBN. It has done so and hopes are high among exited volunteers that they would receive funding from the Federal Government.
Takeaways:
We’ve got the full list here for you to pick the most suitable for your business and delve into how you can access them in our subsequent guideline.
Hundreds of Nigerian entrepreneurs think that the apex bank only plays a regulatory role, that’s not true.
Indeed, CBN is a major player in microfinancing and funding of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Some of the businesses the apex bank is funding include:
The good news is…
You can get as much as N500 million CBN loan to fund your business, depending on the size, profitability, feasibility, and well curated-business plan you set out.
Whichever CBN loans you are planning to access to boost your business, you must know that the apex bank does not credit your account directly. Loans are disbursed through banks and other financial institutions licensed by the CBN.
Little was heard about CBN loans until the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19). It became imperative for the apex bank to rescue businesses which had financial challenges as a result of the impact of the pandemic.
Here is the full list of CBN SME loans you can apply for:
So, who and what kind of business can apply for any of these loans? Let’s take a look at how significant these loans are to small businesses in Nigeria.
Do you know that the ABP loan has been around for close to five years? Yes, the ABP loan was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2015.
It’s designed to create a linkage between anchor companies involved in the processing and smallholder farmers (SHFs) of the required key agricultural commodities.
The mandate of the loan are:
1) Provision of farm inputs in kind and cash (for farm labour) to smallholder farmers to boost production of these commodities
2) To stabilize inputs supply to agro-processors
3) To address Nigeria’s negative balance of payments on food.
How does it work?
At harvest, the SHF supplies his/her produce to the Agro-processor (Anchor) who pays the cash equivalent to the farmer’s account.
Basically, it’s meant to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on food importation which gulped billions of naira every month.
The AGSMEIS is the most popular of all the CBN SME loans targeting the agricultural sector in Nigeria. It’s popular because of the sensitisation by the CBN and its partners.
It’s basically designed as a vehicle for sustainable economic development and generate employment among the teeming Nigerian youths.
Provided your business is registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which is a prerequisite to access SME loan, and you’ve undergone training by entrepreneurship training centres recognised by the CBN and the Bank of Industry (BOI).
One of the objectives of the MSMEDF loan is to enhance access by business owners to financial services, says the CBN when it was launched on August 15, 2013.
The reason for this loan was the fact that the apex bank recognised the enormous contribution of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sub-sector to Nigeria’s economy.
We’ll tell you more on what you need to do to access MSMEDF loan in our subsequent guide.
Creative Industry Financing Initiative
It is an on-lending scheme designed by Nigeria’s apex bank in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee. It’s designed to boost job creation in Nigeria. It’s among the six loans funded by the CBN.
They want to achieve this by providing loans at cheaper rates to the Fashion, Information Technology, Movie and Music sector.
A few months ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released an application for creative minds, students and individuals on how to access funds for their creativity.
If you’re creative and have the requirements outlined by the apex bank, we’ll reveal to you some of the Nigerians banks where you can access the loan.
According to CBN those who can benefit from the loan include:
But before you can access CIFI loan, you must first prepare a business plan, a must for anyone who wants to access government loan in Nigeria and part of the world.
The business plan must contain how much you want for your business.
So you’ve been wondering how much you could get, right? Here is what’s in for each of the categories:
Can wait to apply? You need to know the conditions for the funding.
The eligibility requirements to access the loan are
Others include:
NOTE:
The requirements vary. For instance, to access the Student Software Development Loan, some of the eligibility requirements you must fulfil include:
It’s time to apply…
How to submit your application
In 2020, a committee led by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo announced free 250,000 slots for small business owners to register for their business name. It is part of government effort at boosting small businesses.
Several months after the exercise began, the government said 100,000 businesses have seized the opportunity.
Why the government announced free business name registration:
Last year, the Buhari-led government rolled out several welfare packages as part of the post-COVID-19 strategic measures to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on businesses and individuals.
One of such is Survival Fund which includes ( Payroll, Formalization, guaranteed Offtake, and SME grant).
One of the requirements to accessing some of the grants and soft loans is CAC business registration
As such free business name was announced to allow those who are financially incapacitated to take the advantage.
Unfortunately, this is also the time you could lose the little you have while trying to get a credit facility.l
At a time like this, online scammers popularly called Yahoo Boys in Nigeria could dubiously lure you into losing your money.
Here are the 10 ways to know that a loan is a scam and how you could be scammed while you are trying to applying and be funded from the government, financial institutions, or money lenders.
When you get an SMS saying:
=&0=&
The beauty of this post is that the writer had the first-hand experience of some of the loan apps while he interacted with people on the forum who had used such online lending platforms before.
As such, we’ll also tell you the interest rate of each of the online loan whether you applying to implement your farming business ideas or any other entrepreneurial goals you set yo achieve.
There are some of them we can boldly recommend for your business, while there some of them that could kill your business through the exorbitant interest rate.
What we’ve also noticed is that some of them are yet to come up with apps while some of them operate both on the app and on the browser, whatever the case is we’ve got you covered as you make the move to take an online loan to finance your business.
Before now, financial institutions made it extremely difficult to take a loan because of the tiring paper works and collateral.
But due to the Fintech uprising in Nigeria, online lending startups are making it easier for businesses and private individuals to obtain quick loans to boost their business
So…
So, let’s get started…
=&1=&
Just like Adeola, some business owners don’t really know that microfinance bank in their community offer credit facility provided you can abide by their loan terms and conditions.
We’ll take you on a drive to highlight the CBN-certified Microfinance banks in Nigeria and list the key eligibility requirements to access the credit facility they offer.
The Central Bank of Nigeria is Nigeria’s apex financial institution that plays regulatory roles on other commercial banks and other institutions that offer monetary services.
Certification by the CBN are not alone, the government takes a step further to ensure that the banks are insured by another government agency known as Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
In our subsequent publication, we’ll delve into the process of claiming your deposits or money from liquidated banks.
In the meantime, here is the list of legally recognised microfinance banks you can get a loan:
It said it’s part of the measures to minimise physical contact between workers and its customers. All over the world, everyone is keeping social distancing so as to reduce the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
Registrar-General of the Commission, Alhaji Abubakar Garba was quoted as saying:
“Physical contact between workers and customers of the commission will, thus, be duly minimised to curb the spread of the coronavirus.”
With the CAC e-electronic certificate, small business owners can now complete their company registration online and print the certificate from the dashboard.
You need CAC certificate to apply for any kinds of the loan being rolled out by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CAC).
We already have two publications on how to apply for business registration and the free registration which was rolled out some time ago by the Federal Government.
In this post, we’ll show the step-by-step guide on how to print your CAC certificate online without visiting the commission’s office.
In this post, we’ll share with you funding opportunities for female business owners in Nigeria. If you want to stabilise the home, empower a woman, boost her business, support her financially in her entrepreneurial skills or business.
A former Secretary-General of the United Nations Late Kofi Annan recognised the importance of women in development when he said:
=&0=&
You could take a loan to buy cars, sponsor your kids’ education, buy houses, and expand business
Whatever your reasons are, what are the things to consider before taking a loan? Do you just walk straight into a banking hall to take a loan?
There are a number of questions you need to ask yourself. One of them is: Why am I taking this loan (purpose), how much do I need?
Let’s get right in…
Money is necessary to explore more business opportunities and for personal needs to be realised.
When such needs arise here are the cardinal factors you need to consider before applying and taking a loan whether as an individual or a corporate body:
The first question you ask yourself is: Why am taking a loan. Do I really to take a loan to get things to do?
Are there alternatives like approaching family members, friends, a cooperative society with little or no interest?
For instance, the purposes for personal loans can include covering an emergency expense and financing a large purchase.
In one of our publications, personal loans are categorised as one of the unsecured loans which come with interest.
If your credit score is good, you shouldn’t have a problem accessing a personal loan.
The good part is: the approval process is generally pretty quick with no worry about collateral.
Bottom line: Knowing the purpose of your loan would help you in using it for the purpose it is meant.
If N30,000 would be enough to take care of the situation, there is no need to take N50,000. There is no point in increasing your debt profile.
Most times, the good your credit score, the higher the amount you can take, but don’t be lured by the money lender’s gimmicks.
In some countries, you can take up to $50, 000 or more loans provided your have a score of 760 or higher.
Would you be able to pay within the time frame? What other sources of funds do you have to settle your loan within the time frame?
In making sure to don’t default, it’s advisable to choose the most feasible time so that your credit score isn’t affected.
For instance, if you’re taking a payday loan, don’t set a two-week repayment time for yourself if your salary would not come in by the end of the month.
Some organisations pay the fourth day of another month, put this into consideration. Don’t put yourself under pressure that is avoidable.
Your ability to repay the principal and interest over the repayment period is very important as taking the loan.
The ability to pay is called “capacity,” in banking. The lending institutions have a lot of factors they use to determine if a borrower would be able to pay the principal and interest.
The principle is the actual amount you applied for while the interest is simply the “gain” the lender is making from granting the loan.
One of the things the lender uses is your income and cash flow.
If it’s an online loan, which is growing astronomically in Nigeria, FairMoney is one of the best of them all.
If you have a good credit score, you could get a discount on repayment and with a fair interest rate compared with its competitors.
If you’re taking a long from banks, the lending process involves a series of activities that lead to the approval or rejection.
Most times, you have to have an active account with the bank before your could access their loan.
In Nigeria, some banks are friendlier and considerate in granting a loan than the other. Which bank do I approach for a loan? More coming up on this very soon.
Loan Collateral (guarantee)
Usually, all kinds of funding fall into two major types of loans. Whether the funding is from the government, non-governmental organisation, or from a financial institution, they could be categorised as:
In this post, we’ll take a look into what makes a secured and unsecured loan, most especially when you’re trying to get loans from Nigerian banks.
This is a loan whereby the borrower is compelled to produce collateral like property, movable assets.
Usually, the collateral which is also known as a guarantee are always worth more than the amount of the loan.
The money lender is in a business, he makes profits from the interest from a borrower as such he puts in place every mechanism to ensure that he doesn’t run into loss.
This way, the collateral can be claimed by the lender in case the borrower fails to pay back or failed to fulfil his own side of the agreement.
That’s why there will be always terms and conditions before you take a secured loan. For instance, a property worth N5,000, 000 could be collateral for someone taking a N2, 000, 000 loan.
It is called “term loan” which is granted by financial institutions for a specific amount and repayment terms, as well as a fixed or fluctuating interest rate.
If you default, the lender can put a lien on the collateral (a lien is a legal term for the lender’s claim to the borrower’s collateral.)
The lender can keep the lien active until the loan is fully paid. That;s when the collateral ownership reverts back to the borrower.
The moneylender has the legal right to put up the collateral for sale if you default. He does this to cover any losses incurred on the loan.
That’s how it works!
Most times, secured loans in Nigeria covers business funding running into millions or billions of naira.
Kinds of secured loans vary from country to country, but generally here are the types of loans that require collateral:
We’ll delve deeply into these in our subsequent publications. Let’s a take a look at the most popular ones which is…Mortgage Loan.
Also known as housing loan, which is currently being undertaken by the federal government where 300, 000 housing units are built for the benefits of Nigerians at affordable price.
A mortgage loan is usually granted by financial institutions for the purchase of property usually with specified interest rate and the repayment period.
It’s one of the easiest loans banks are interested in because the property itself is the collateral.
If you backslide on the terms and mode of repayment, it could lead to foreclosure (that is seizing of the property). In simple terms, the ownership could be taken by the lender.
An Unsecured Loan is a collateral-free loan in which the borrower does not need to pledge any asset to access funding.
But the lenders are also smart because it riskier than the secured loan, so the interest rates are usually higher.
This isn’t popular in Nigeria, but it is very important to note that it is one of the unsecured loans provided by banks in yje United Kingdom, United States of America (USA) and some European countries.
Credit card loan is issued by financial institutions to allows cardholder to spend an amount above his account balance, but up to an agreed limit.
The bank usually carry out regular checks and reconciliations at intervals to balance the account and claim interests, charges and principal according to the terms and conditions.
As the name sounds, it is a loan granted to settle personals stuffs like electricity bill, data etc. It’s generally for personal use.
You could get this loan from your bank if you have a good credit record. Personal loan is Nigeria is now popular among online loan firms. In some countries, it’s referred to as consumer loan.
Key takeaways: