More than 2000 SMEs have applied for loans under the National Government supported loan facility the SME Credit Enhancement Scheme loan by BSP with K115 million funded.
It was reported that of the 2100 SMEs that had applied for loans via the SME CESL facility, over 50 percent applicants were successful with nearly 30 percent of loans in the application stage and 20 percent got declined through the Bank’s normal credit assessment process, according to BSP Group CEO Robin Fleming.
Fleming said that BSP Financial Group Limited continues to fund loans using its own funds under the SME CESL facility, despite exceeding the K100m support funding provided by the Government.
“BSP continues to lend through the festive period to our SMEs and we are able to do this with the run-offs from funded loans and by maintaining loan delinquencies within the Bank’s delinquency threshold,” said Fleming.
Head of SME BSP, Jeffrey Singer said that the festive season has been hectic so far with an increasing number of applicants coming through, and already have over K90 million in value of applications being processed.
These numbers have picked up from all regions and the three SME Business Centres in Lae, Goroka and Vision City in Port Moresby.
Singer added that before year-end, BSP was able to exceed the K100m funding support with the reduction of equity requirement from 30 percent to 10 percent. The change in the maximum loan amount from K3m to K5m has enabled more SMEs to be eligible to access the SME CESL facility.
“It has obviously been a challenging year for our SMEs in particular but as they say, tough times don’t last, tough people do,” said Singer.