NDB commercialising group, to rollout K80mil for MSMEs

THE National Development Bank (NDB) says part of its strategy for the next 12 months is the commercialisation of the NDB group and rollout of the K80 million soft lending facility for micro small to medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Acting managing director Aaron Underdown told The National yesterday that these were the bank’s two main tasks it wanted to deliver this year.
In terms of the commercialisation, Underdown said details were commercially sensitive.
NDB released a public notice last year notifying its customers that it would not collect any applications under the government K80 million funded soft lending facility.
It, instead, said it would launch four new loan products to facilitate lending from those funds this year.
MSME Council president Desmond Yaninen said commercialisation was a priority for the past five years but had not progressed.
“Hopefully it gets done and NDB is able to offer banking services to SMEs at a lower cost than current banks,” he said.
“I look forward to lending to resume in the first quarter of this year for SMEs.
“The K80 million was the 2020 allocation. In the 2021 Budget, the Government has allocated another K200 million.
“Hopefully, NDB will lend that out this year and not defer it to 2022.”