James. we offer good customer service and try to make people feel at home

Access Financial Services Ltd has formed an alliance with the Small Businesses Association of Jamaica (SBAJ) to deepen the association's presence throughout the island, and ultimately broaden its membership base.

Both institutions signed a memorandum of understanding in October last year, and, according to Marcus James, managing director of Access Financial, the programme of co-operation is expected to begin by the end of February.

"Under the MOU, Access Financial will assist SBAJ to increase its presence throughout the island, using our branch network," James told the Business Observer on Monday. "We will also assist in increasing the membership of the SBAJ by marketing the association to our clients."

Access, which provides loans ranging from around $5,000 to a maximum of $250,000 to small and micro-businesses, has, since inception in 2000, provided funding for over 6,400 clients.

The company, with head office on Half-Way-Tree Road in Kingston, now has three other branches, one each in St Thomas, Montego Bay and Spanish Town. It employs 18 workers.

James said that within the four years since Access began, it disbursed over $230 million in loans, and that under the MOU, the company would "provide incentives to our clients to join the SBAJ".

The SBAJ, which is headquartered on Lady Musgrave Road in Kingston, provides training courses in financial management, packaging and presentation to its members. It also hosts a weekly flee-market that provides sales outlet for its members.

Access began as a lending agency exclusively to small and micro businesses, but in November 2003 started offering loans to individuals for personal use. James said that his company was moving to increase this aspect of the business.

Access secures funding from a range of wholesale agencies, and competes in the market with institutions such as Scotiabank's and Jamaica National's micro lending agencies.

James told the Business Observer that the loans were mostly for businesses rather than personal use, and that a wide range of industries made up the loan portfolio - from trading, and manufacturing, to agriculture. However, most of the customers, he noted, were traders.

The average loan is around $40,000, with borrowers having a maximum of one year for repayment.

According to James, Access tries to create a non-intimidating environment in order to encourage borrowing by micro businesspersons whose business would clearly benefit from loans, but who would normally shy away from banking halls.

"We offer good customer service and try to make people feel at home. Some of them are intimidated by the traditional institutions," he said. "Our process is a lot easier. For micro businesses, all they require is a viable business which they have operated for at least one year."

After the initial application, a site visit is undertaken "to look at the business, and the credit committee does its work and disburses within a week of the completed application", explained James.

James noted that an important driving force behind the business was repeat borrowing by customers. "People come back for repeat loan and we base our analysis on their payment record," he explained, adding that the clients were mostly women.

Bad debt, he said, was "within international norms".
James said that Access would be providing funding to "SBAJ members who qualify" as part of its plan to expand its branch network this year and aggressively expand its share of the market.

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