Press Releases

Following a rewarding partnership with Bank of Industry (BoI), Unity Bank Plc has emerged as one of the first set of Banks to access N140b Government’s social intervention Scheme aimed at promoting small businesses, job creation, poverty reduction and improving the quality of life of the citizenry.

The N140b is a fund set aside under the Federal Government Initiative tagged Government Enterprise Empowerment Program (GEEP) and the Bank’s participation in the laudable scheme stems from the strategic business objective of supporting Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) to access affordable funding. 

Commenting on the Bank’s participation, the MD/CEO of Unity Bank Plc, Mrs Tomi Somefun stated that the success of the partnership with BoI is testament to the fact that despite the difficulties of accessing credits by this segment of the market, the good knowledge and understanding of different players in the market segments and ability to harness inherent opportunities for their benefit has continued to differentiate the Bank in line with its strategic business focus on Agriculture, Retail/SME and Rural economy.

Thus, with the approval of the loan package by BoI, qualifying Unity Bank customers, amongst which are Market women, traders, artisans, farmers and enterprising youths operating Medium Small & Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) will be among the first beneficiaries of the Federal Government credit scheme via direct payment from BoI. The fund disbursement to beneficiaries ranges from N10, 000 to N100, 000.

The GEEP program was initiated by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment through the Bank of Industry and it is expected that about 1.6 MSMEs will benefit from the disbursement of the GEEP credit scheme. The Fund is being operated in partnership with Commercial Banks, Microfinance Banks and other Financial Institutions in Nigeria.

As a requirement, an applicant to the GEEP scheme is expected to belong to either market, trade associations or cooperatives groups identifiable through valid Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and other relevant bio-data. The group will equally pass the BoI-appointed enumeration agents to qualify.