At some point in life, people decide to take loans to meet their urgent and important needs, some of which may be for debt settlement, home remodeling, moving costs, emergency expenses, vehicle financing, vacation costs, and more. Before you get any loan, you should know that it’s not advisable to borrow money if what you want to use it for wouldn’t facilitate an increase in your wealth or income over time. This is conceptualized in the good and bad debt analogy.
While good debts often revolve around business loans or borrowing money to invest towards gaining financial independence, bad debts are loans spent on things that are bound to not have any productive impact on the financial status of the debtor in terms of building wealth. At Zenith Bank, customers have access to fantastic loan packages that best suit their needs.
Types Of Zenith Bank Loans and The Processes Involved in Accessing Them
Like all other banks around, Zenith Bank profits a great deal from lending money to anyone who wants it. The idea is for these banks to borrow money from their massive base of customers – depositors whom they compensate with some percentage of interest rate. Like others, Zenith Bank lends this money out to other customers who want to borrow, charging a higher interest rate, thereby generating massive revenue.
At the end of the day, it’s a win-win for those saving their money, the bank, and the borrower. Unless it becomes a case of “doubtful debts” for the bank, or for a borrower who borrowed to spend on things that wouldn’t make them richer. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if you really need to borrow and what to use the money for. Zenith Bank loans come in a variety of packages for individuals, small-medium enterprises, and corporate organizations. These loan packages include the following:
Z-Woman Business Package (SME – Small Medium Enterprise Loans)
The Z-Woman is Zenith Bank’s single-digit loan product for female small business enterprise business owners. The loan, once offered, can be used for several purposes such as working capital, buying of stock, or for the upgrade of one’s business premises or workplace.
One can obtain a loan up to ₦10 million, with a 9% interest rate per annum, and a maximum loan tenor of 2 years. In its effort to contribute towards the social and economic development of the communities where it operates, Zenith Bank designed this loan to aid the needs that are unique to businesses owned by women so that they are better-empowered to record more achievements.
Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSME) Loans
This loan is made available to individuals seeking to fund their business needs. The Zenith Bank MSME package covers micro, small, and medium businesses. One can borrow up to ₦2 million payable for a year with an interest rate of 9% of the loaned amount.
This loan was designed to create an avenue that would facilitate improved employment generation and ultimately, ensure sustainable economic development. Through this scheme, businesses get to access low-interest loans from Zenith Bank.
The Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI)
This initiative was established by the Central Bank of Nigeria to act as a catalyst to jobs in Nigeria and improve the creative industry. Businesses involving Fashion, ICT, movies, and music production are all qualified for funding. Loans are also made available for software engineering students.
The loan amount and tenor vary, but the interest rate is set at 9%. From what we gathered, software engineering students can access up to ₦3 million; movie distribution business can access up to ₦500 million, and movie production business up to ₦30 million.
Import Finance Facility
Import finance is a way of getting businesses to get funds to import goods and services. For example, one can use this medium for the importation of raw materials or machinery to be used for the production of goods and services.
Overdraft
This package is mouthwatering and one of the easiest loans made available to customers.
Here, with a business overdraft, a business owner can borrow money beyond what he/she has available in the account balance.
The overdraft or borrowing limit is pre-defined and one has about 12 months to repay the loan.
Receiving Discounting / Invoice Discounting
This Zenith Bank loan package allows business owners to take loans against their receivables (invoices). Any money advanced will be discounted which means one would get a percentage of the invoice’s total value.
Timeless Loans
Zenith Bank created the Timeless Pension Advance loans to provide pension advances to timeless pensioners. The timeless loans are grouped under the Timeless Pension Advance and the Timeless Pension Advance Plus and their tenor are respectively for 30-90 days and 12-18 months. For the latter, the maximum loan amount is 50% of the annual pension receivable sum, and the former, 100% of the monthly pension value. The interest rate for both is 16% per annum.
Export Finance Facility
In this package, Zenith Bank lends money to business owners who are into the exportation of products overseas, including export commodities or finished goods. This fund can be provided at both pre and post-shipment stages.
Local Purchase Order (LPO) Finance
LPO finance or local purchase order finance permits companies to borrow against their purchase orders. For example, when a business has an order to supply materials to a reputable organization, they may take a loan to meet the order request.
Term Loans
This package offers term loans to customers seeking funds for diverse reasons. Depending on the customer’s needs, both short and long-term loans can be accessible. The repayment of such loans are available in two options:
- Balloon/bullet repayment plan: single repayment of principal of a bond or loan on its maturity date (rather than gradually repaying the loan in installments over a period of time, as in an amortizing loan).
- An installment debt is a loan that is repaid by the borrower in regular installments. An installment debt is generally repaid in equal monthly payments that include interests and a portion of the principal loan amount received.
Syndicated Loans
In the case of loan syndication, Zenith Bank, in coalition with other fund lenders, provides business owners with a large amount of loan and a long-term repayment package.
Project Finance
This package is suitable for large, capital-intensive, infrastructural, and industrial developmental projects. Such funds may either be provided by Zenith Bank solely or may be given by the bank in collaboration with other banks that also offer project finance loans.
Bonds and Guarantees
Also one of the many Zenith Bank loans available to its customers, Bonds and Guarantees are said to be various instruments the bank issues on behalf of customers to support a selection of business contracts. Contracts selected may vary from construction to supply or performance.
Lease Loan
As part of its quest and relentless devotion towards supporting ideas that reshape the world, Zenith Bank created the Lease loan scheme. It is majorly about leaseback financing directed at supporting the acquisition of assets or equipment.
How Do I Qualify For Any Of The Zenith Bank Loans?
Getting a loan from Zenith Bank is pretty easy, provided the customer has met all the basic requirements set by Zenith bank management. While the procedure has been simplified, it would amount to a waste of time if one fails to meet all the requirements or provide the documents required.
Requirements for Getting a Personal Zenith Bank Loan
- The customer must not be less than 18 years of age and must not be more than 60 years of age.
- The customer must be an income earner of not less than ₦10,000 per month.
- The customer must not have any preexisting loan with Zenith Bank or any other bank. If there were any such unpaid debts, one is expected to clear them before reapplying for a new loan.
Requirements for Getting a Zenith Bank Business Loan
To obtain any of the Zenith Bank loans, the client has to pick an option for the business type, as each product or package comes with its lending criteria or regulations. The under-listed are just the general basic requirements for accessing the loans regardless of the chosen package:
- The business must be a profitable one capable of generating consistent monthly income
- The account used to make an application for the loan must have a good credit history. This is most essential for those seeking loans without any collateral
- The company or business must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)
- Provision of the business’s corporate bank account
- The business must have been running for a minimum of 1–3 years
- The business must have a good Credit Bureau Report and there must be no unpaid obligations or bad debt
- The business or its owner must be an active customer of the bank
How to Apply for a Zenith Bank Business Loan
After finding your preferred package on the list of Zenith Bank business loans, you can now choose the mode of application to follow. The application can be done via mobile phone, by emailing the bank, or by paying a visit to any of the Zenith Bank branches nationwide.
No matter the mode of application chosen, the bank still takes an eagle view of:
- The business’s suitability for the package chosen
- Purpose of the loan fund
The listed factors are taken into consideration during application evaluation. On passing the examination for securing funds, the money will further be withheld until the borrower meets certain other requirements, which would usually be laid out in an approval letter.
Note: Non-Zenith bank customers are welcome to apply for the loan package offered by the Zenith bank – but the accessibility to the funds is easier when the bank already has enough track records of you (as a customer).
Below is a list of some of the basic requirements, as any of the packages may need one or more of these:
- Completed application form
- Company profile
- Business plan
- Cash for budget
- Bank statement (dating back to 12 months)
- An audited financial account
- Certificate of incorporation
- A valid means of identification, for example, a driving license, a passport photograph, a valid voters card
- Proof of residential address, for example, Utility Bill
- Details of collateral to be used (if any)
Note: All of the documents listed above may not be necessary in the case of unsecured loans, which do not require any collateral. You can email the bank for more information.
What Is the Code to Borrow Money From Zenith Bank?
Customers always look for easy ways of accessing products and services without necessarily having to go through rigorous processes. For easy access to different kinds of Zenith Bank loans, the financial institution has mapped out such measures which customers can make use of without having to queue up at the bank.
One of the methods is the Zenith Bank Eazy loan, where customers can have easy access to loans from the comfort of their homes.
The code to dial is *966*, then follow the on-screen prompts.
Steps:
- Dial *966# on your mobile phone
- Select 8 to view the next list of options
- At this point, you would be taken to the zenith bank Eazy banking, input 13 < Eazy money
- If at this point, you do not have an Eazy account, you would be required to provide your details for an account opening. But if otherwise, you will proceed to the loan section where you would be given packages available to your account
Or simply dial: *966*amount*account number#
Interest Rate Of Zenith Bank Eazy Loan
Every loan has an interest rate and it would be very foolish for anyone to take a loan without a careful study of the interest rate. The Zenith Bank Eazy loan is 1.7% of whatever one borrows.
Nonetheless, it can change from time to time depending on the package you are going for. The good thing is that the Zenith Bank Loan calculator helps clients at any point in time to get an elaborate view of what he/she would be paying back.
Here’s How The Zenith Bank Loan Calculator Works
The loan calculator is used for the basic calculation of common loan types such as mortgages, auto loans, student loans, or personal loans.
The application calculates the loan amount, the interest rate, loan duration (in months) to give the total repayment amount (principal + interest, monthly payment, monthly principal repayment, and the monthly interest repayment). To use the loan calculator, visit the website and enter the required figures to start calculating what you need to pay if you take the loan from the bank.
