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 Minister of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives 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 Nasional 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 the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

He was answering a supplementary question from Onn Abu Bakar (Pakatan Harapan-Batu Pahat) on measures to improve the delivery system of the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (Kuskop), particularly through Tekun Nasional, to facilitate and speed up microentrepreneurs’ access to financing.

Mohamad said Tekun Nasional aimed to decide on financing applications below RM20,000 within 24 hours, adding that since Aug 7, it had also allowed applicants to submit applications online without visiting its offices.

In response to a question from Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (Perikatan Nasional-Masjid Tanah) on the percentage of microentrepreneurs who received financing and assistance from Kuskop agencies between 2023 and 2026, Mohamad said 8,008 had expanded into the small or medium 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 rate fell from 12.66% in 2023 to 8.60% as of September 2024.

He said Bank Rakyat’s non-performing financing rate also fell from 15% to 11% over the same period, while AIM recorded rates of 0.09% in 2023, 0.02% in 2024 and 0% in 2025.

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