COVID-19 Targetted Credit Facility: Solutions to problems associated with accessing the Loan

Having observed lots of problems that had stood on the smiles of many applicants of the COVID-19 Targetted Credit Facility Loan, this publication became essential after some enquiries.

As earlier explained, the COVID-19 Targetted Credit Facility Loan is a palliative Loan introduced by the Federal Government in April, 2020  to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on Small and Medium Enterprises  (SMEs) which featured the SME and Household Loans and disbursed by the NIRSAL Microfinance Bank at 5% interest rate for the 1st year and 9% interest rate for subsequent years for 3years maximum duration.

Here are some pressing problems encountered by many applicants and solutions to solving them.

Problem 1. You have entered your account details after accepting your loan offer but has not been credited for more than a week:

Solution: 

(i) Visit the official website https://covid19.nmfb.com.ng

(ii) When it opens, enter your BVN.

(iii) If it says " Sorry, You have previously submitted this information." Please be patient and wait a little as your details were recieved.

(iv) But if it brings out where you can re-enter your account number again, kindly select your bank and re-enter your account, and submit.

It takes usually 3 working days to get credited to your bank account.

Note: You must ensure your type of account submitted can recieve up to approved loan in one transaction. If not, visit your bank to convert your account to normal.

Problem 2: You entered your BVN, you saw it was approved and asked to 'proceed' but could not find where to enter account details.

Solution:

(i) After opening the official website https://covid19.nmfb.com.ng and entering your BVN, click on "Proceed".

(ii) You will see your Agreement with the Bank. Please take your time and go through the agreement.

(iii) Scroll up by dragging up the body of the agreement page.

(iv) At the end of the agreement page, you would see your name and a space for signature. Just go up a little and click on "Accept".

(v) A space will open where you can now enter your account details.

Problem 3: You mistakenly clicked on "Reject" instead of "Accept". This problem is becoming common.

Solution:

(i) When trying to accept the offer, please take caution not to click on reject unless you outrightly want to reject the offer.

(ii) If you have mistakenly clicked on "Reject", kindly visit a Nirsal Microfinance Bank near you for complaints. You will be attended to.

Problem 4: Your Loan has been credited to your Bank Account but you can't withdraw.

Solution:

(i) The only solution here is to visit the nearest Nirsal Microfinance Bank close to you. It will be resolved immediately.

Problem 5: You recieved a message that your Loan has been credited to your Nirsal Microfinance Bank account.

Solution:

Note: When you accept the offer, if you did not put in your account details, it would be credited to a Nirsal Microfinance Bank Account that will be created for you. Just walk into a nearest Nirsal Microfinance Bank in your State and it will be solved.

Problem 6: 'BVN Does not exist', "Your loan has not been approved, please check back"

Solution:

These are common responses when your Loan has not been approved. Don't worry, just keep checking back. As at last week, some people I assisted during application were have "BVN does not exist" but as at yesterday, some have been approved even without notification.

You need to continue checking back because, often, you do not get text notification from bulk SMS because your 'Do not Disturb' is turned on. 

Do not forget, to check if your Loan has been approved, follow this method:

1. Open https://covid19.nmfb.com.ng

2. When it loads, select the type of Loan you applied for. Either SME or Household

3. Enter your BVN. Do not worry, the website is safe. That's the official website of Nirsal Microfinance Bank.

4. A response will be displayed. 

If it says your Loan has been approved, it will load your details asking you to proceed to accept your Loan offer. Proceed to complete the process and enter your account details.

If it says 'Your loan has not been approved, check back later, kindly check back later as they said.

If it however displays "BVN does not exist", do not panic. Just keep checking back from time to time as approval is on going.

Kindly note that in order to ensure larger distribution of the allocated fund for the COVID-19 Targetted Credit Facility, the Federal Government decided on cutting down the amount of proposed loan per individual. What this means is, if you applied for N1million, you may get N500,000 or N300,000 approved so that many other Nigerians that applied would benefit too.