by Chris Ikechukwu

The Bank of Industry has said it will set up a loan monitoring unit that will help check mate the issue of non-repayment of loans by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The Body also said it would appoint business development support plans for SMEs in order to reduce cases of business failure.

In a statement signed by the BoI’s Head of Corporate Communication, Mrs Hadiza Olaosebikan and issued on Sunday, in Abuja,  by the bank’s Managing Director, Mr Rasheed Olaoluwa, it stated that the business development support programme would help to give necessary direction to any entrepreneur with viable business plans.

“We are setting up a loan monitoring unit and that will address the issue of non-repayment of loans.

“In addition, we are in the process of appointing business development support plans that will hold the SMEs from the point of applying for loans through documentation, providing of securities, disbursement, and utilisation until full recovery is achieved. These business development support plans are at the point of being appointed and we believe that it will improve the performance of the SMEs,” it stated.

According to the statement, the conditions needed by SMEs to obtain loans were simple, stressing that the loan would be given to any entrepreneur that answer the four basic questions, which are; What product are you offering; Who are your target customers; What is your value proposition; and How are you going to deliver that value proposition?

The statement noted that the reason why most banks go bankrupt is as a result of inability to recover loans

“When a bank collapses, nine out of 10 reasons why it collapsed, is because they have not been able to recover their loans.”

It suggested that one way to address the issue of loan recovery is to have commercial courts that could fast track process for foreclosure of defaulting banks loan(s).