Rasheed Olaoluwa, managing director, Bank of Industry, BOI, is concerned about the future of small and medium enterprises, SMEs. He recently unveiled five mobile applications to boost their operations. The products are: SME Mobile App, SME Accounting application software, SAAPP, Online Loan Application Portal, Loan Application Tracking system, and SME Customer Portal. While the SME mobile application provides easy access to companies information, the SME accounting app offers accounting tips and the loan application portal allow both existing and potential clients to apply for loan from BOI.

Olaoluwa explained that the development financial institution leverage on the 85 per cent rate of tele-density of the country, giving that about 145.3 million Nigerians are active users of mobile devices. According to him, the app, which can be downloaded from Google Play Store for Android phones, Application World for blackberry and Application Store for iPhones and iPads, is easy to use in view of its user-friendly features that make it pleasing to the eyes and fun to browse, while also serving as a power house for SME-centric information and loan tracking tool.

Olaoluwa said that the App was a do-it-yourself kind of application that only demanded the input of data by the SME owner, while the system did the calculations. “The online loan application has been created for the convenience of the of the BOI’s prospective SME customers in the sense that they do not need to come physically to the bank to process their loans. It is obviously advantageous in shortening the Turn Around Time, TAT, of the loans, and it also consists of the other tracking system application, which can be used without having to bother any of the staff,” he said.