Why do Banks have a hard time supporting entrepreneurs? Need for innovation in SME finance

Why do banks have a hard time supporting entrepreneurs? What kind of innovations are underway and what might we expect in the future? It’s time to close the missing middle and there are some promising efforts underway.

Jason Wendle, a Dalberg Associate, makes the point to VC4Africa during a recent filming, ‘The lack of collateral is the biggest challenge. Banks see the SME market as attractive, but they have difficulty assessing the risk and there are few assets in place needed to secure the investment. SMEs on the other hand need fast loans to fill big orders.’ Gerry Monteiro, the Vice President of the Small Business Banking Network, expands, ‘Interest rates are high for SMEs. We have to look beyond lending products and look deeper at financial (and non financial) needs. Banks don’t necessarily appreciate the SME profit drivers.’ This lack of insight on the part of banks hinders the development of appropriate banking solutions. What they do offer doesn’t always meet the needs of the entrepreneurs. The lack of track record, credit history, or tangible assets that can serve as collateral, further hinder the process. As a result, the cost of lending is high, SMEs run the risk of over leveraging their accounts, and there is a need for alternative financing solutions.

Wendle Explaining the Missing Middle from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.

There is more innovation needed if we are to close the gap. It is encouraging to see high profile organizations like GroFin continue their drive to serve a smaller business segment. With 10 offices in 9 countries they have been able to reach out to countless SMEs and offer their support. We are also seeing innovative partnerships between larger players like Safaricom and Ecobank in Kenya. Reaching out to the small saver, brings the bank closer to small business. For example, Ecobank Zambia says it now targets 50 percent of its loan portfolio to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) this year. Now the job is to see if partnerships like this can be replicated in other countries. We want to see more big banks willing to service small businesses and expect these trends to continue.

Banking and finance institutions aside, we also see more organizations working to address the issue of due diligence. From research with the investor network at VC4Africa, we know that finding good entrepreneurs with qualified business ideas remains a major barrier to investing into small business. One of the reasons VC4Africa launched its own due diligence and matchmaking service that looks to help both VC4A entrepreneurs and investors. Our online profiles are becoming rich sources of information and we see an increasing number of matches being made across the network. At the same time we see organizations like Open Capital Advisors, whom we have invited for an interview, doing great work in Nairobi. They are building in invaluable service for both entrepreneurs and investors in the area.

The Harvard Finance Lab (EFL) is another organization making efforts to address this gap. They have introduced psychometric screening tools that measure future upside potential, rather than traditional risk management tools used by banks for debt contracts, which only measure downside risk. Recently they announced that Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank, has signed an exclusive two year deal with EFL which guarantees at least 100,000 EFL credit-applications equaling an estimated $US 500-$700 million in new loan origination across the continent. This adds to their already $US 60 million lent to 22,000 applications in + 18 countries.

There are a lot of encouraging developments in the space and we expect to see more come online soon. Bottom line, small business is the engine of our economy and it is in all of our interest to service this segment. More entrepreneurs getting funding means more jobs and more taxes. We need more of both!