Facebook one of the giant social networking site on Friday launched the ‘Small Business Initiative’. In order to help and boost small businesses.
India is one of the first countries where this program is launched. The program allows small and medium businesses to avail loans ranging from Rs 5 to Rs 50 lakh across 200 cities in the country.
Facebook Giant has partnered with Indifi which will help small and medium businesses (SMBs). The advertising on Facebook’s platform to get quick access to credit through independent lending partners.
Ajit Mohan, Managing Director(MD), Facebook India, tweeted on Twitter and wrote, “With Facebook India’s new Small Business Loans Initiative, our partners can get access to timely credit. Thanks to Amitabh Kant and Uday Shankar for supporting us on our shared vision of helping small businesses drive big growth in India and around the world.”
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Although Indifi and Facebook partnered in this initiative. But most of the decisions regarding the loan will be take up and handle by Indifi. The announcement of the initiative was done virtually in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
The announcement came at a virtual event – ‘Enabling MSME Growth through Financial Inclusion’- hosted by Facebook India. In partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) .
Explaining the features of the program further, Mohan said that there are five key unique elements designed as a part of the initiative. “There is no collateral needed and the disbursement process is fast. The interest range is pre-defined between 17-20% per annum. Then there is a broad spectrum of Rs 5 lakh – Rs 50 lakh in loans, which implies solutions for different businesses. Besides this, it will enable more women-led businesses in India – small businesses that are wholly or partly women-owned can get a special 0.2% reduction per annum on the applied loan interest rate from Indifi,” Mohan added.
Facebook will not monetize this and Small businesses can grow easily and advertise easily. Without having to give any revenue to Facebook. SME will not not have to spend the loan proceeds on Facebook.
All the decisions related to the loans – including approval, disbursement and recovery – will be made by Indifi (and other lending partners as they join).
The loan will be given after full approval, submission of documentation and after being verified with 5 days by Indifi. Mohan said about 200 million businesses use Facebook apps every month across the world . Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and a significant share of that is in India.
Small businesses that are run by women fully or partly will get some relaxation.In terms of paying interest. 0.2 percent reduction per annum on the applied loan interest rate from Indifi.
Since last year Facebook has taken many initiatives to help Small and Medium businesses to recover from crises in the time of the Pandemic. Some of these include offering grants to small businesses. And expanding the company’s industry-leading skilling initiatives to support the offline to online journeys of small businesses. With this program being launched Facebook hopes to help Small, Micro, Medium business and enterprises in India.
There are much business that uses Facebook for business. About 200 million business uses Facebook apps like Instagram, WhatsApp to find and engage with new customers everyday. In India alone it has 15 million business users.
