As part of continued efforts to revamp Nigeria’s health sector, Access Bank has announced a partnership with GE Healthcare Systems to provide cost-efficient and flexible financing for healthcare providers.
The finance scheme is specifically designed to address major challenges experienced by healthcare providers in accessing finance, including onerous documentation and stiff collateral requirements, huge financing cost, short loan periods amongst others. Access Bank will offer healthcare providers finance of up to N300 million towards the purchase of equipment from GE Healthcare.
Commenting on the scheme, Access Bank’s Group Managing Director, Herbert Wigwe, said the bank’s support is geared towards encouraging entrepreneurs to take advantage of the opportunities that lie within the sector.
“Healthcare financing schemes usually come with a lot of bottlenecks which make access to finance difficult for applicants, consequently slowing down the growth of the Nigerian health sector. At Access Bank, we have decided to encourage healthcare entrepreneurs at this time to take advantage of the opportunities that lie within the sector, offering them access to finance devoid of bottlenecks such as stiff collaterals, difficult documentations and so on.
“As a bank, we are committed to partnering with public and private sector stakeholders to ensure that the health sector is positioned to serve Nigerians in a manner that meets up with global best practices” he concluded.
Upon submission of the required documents, the loans will be disbursed within three to 10 days and tenored for up to five years. The financing scheme covers a diverse range of equipment including Digital Imaging equipment, Ultrasound equipment, Life Care Support equipment among others.
To benefit from this offering, healthcare providers must have been in operation for at least one year with the key promoter having a minimum of four years’ experience in a public or private firm. Furthermore, organisations must have a valid registration with the CAC and relevant regulatory authorities while also possessing a bank statement showing account activity over one year.
Workers, retirees free to change their PFAs
Henceforth, workers and retirees who feel the need to move their pension account from their current Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) can do so.
This is just as the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SFF), Boss Mustapha launched the Retirement Savings Account Transfer System (RTS) that will enable the movement.
Declaring the RTS open during a virtual program organized by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the SGF said the transfer of Retirement Saving Account (RSA) holders is in line with the provision of Section 13 of Pension reform act of 2014 which allows pension contributor or retiree to move his or her RSA from one PFA to another provided that it is not more than once in a year.
He stated that the implementation of this provision will rather deepen the choices given to pension contributors and retirees over the management of their pension funds.
He noted that the new development shows the transparency of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) which is line with the federal government’s policy under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari of entrenching accountability at all levels.
The Director General of PenCom, Mrs. Aisha Dahir-Umar on her part said the activation of the transfer system is a major milestone achieved by the commission considering that it has been on the drawing board from the inception of the pension reform in 2004.
