KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — The National Entrepreneurial Group Economic Fund (TEKUN Nasional) has agreed to reduce the financing approval processing time to four days to speed up microentrepreneurs’ access to capital.
Deputy Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin said efforts to speed up the financing process had previously reduced the approval period in stages from 10 days to seven days.
“We asked for the period to be shortened further, and TEKUN has agreed to process approvals within four days and disburse the loans within five working days.
“We are looking at ways to help entrepreneurs obtain funding as quickly as possible because they need capital urgently,” he said during a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was answering a supplementary question from Onn Abu Bakar (Harapan-Batu Pahat) about improvements to the Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Ministry’s (KUSKOP) delivery system, especially through TEKUN Nasional, to facilitate and expedite microentrepreneurs’ access to financing.
Mohamad said TEKUN Nasional aims to decide on financing applications below RM20,000 within 24 hours, adding that since August 7, it had also allowed applicants to submit applications online without visiting its offices.
In response to a question from Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (PN-Masjid Tanah) on the percentage of microentrepreneurs who received financing and aid from KUSKOP agencies between 2023 and 2026, Mohamad said 8,008 had expanded into the small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) category.
He said that from 2023 to September 2024, KUSKOP, through Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM), TEKUN Nasional and Bank Rakyat, recorded 1.27 million financing transactions for microentrepreneurs, amounting to RM14.56 billion.
Of the total, AIM and TEKUN Nasional provided 212,910 new financing facilities worth RM2.19 billion, while 1.05 million repeat financing facilities worth RM12.13 billion were also recorded.
Meanwhile, Mohamad said TEKUN Nasional’s non-performing loans (NPL) rate fell from 12.66 per cent in 2023 to 8.6 per cent as of September 2024.
He said Bank Rakyat’s non-performing financing (NPF) rate also fell from 15 per cent to 11 per cent over the same period, while AIM recorded rates of 0.09 per cent in 2023, 0.02 per cent in 2024 and 0 per cent in 2025.
