Business
Analyst Makes Case For Review Of $1bn Loan For MSMEs
A business analyst, Nerus Ekezie, has appealed to the Federal Government to review the conditions attached to the one billion dollars loan earmarked to support the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) which is to be accessed through the Bank of Industry.
Ekezie, a former Director of National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) made the appeal while speaking to aviation correspondents, recently.
He noted that the conditions attached to the loan were too stringent, saying many budding entrepreneurs can not meet the criteria set by the Bank to access the loan.
“The bank will start to demand for a collateral, guarantors and processing fees, thereby negating the process.
“The Federal Government should have more interface with the various associations in the SMEs sector, so empower the right businesses.
“Government could liaise with the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) or Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) to guide them on how they could allocate the funds.
“These associations within the business communities are stakeholders and are better informed on how such ideas could be more successful” Ekezie said.
He said that the bank of industry which is a developmental bank has been over capitalized and that allocating these funds would be unnecessary, as there were other channels to support the MSMEs sector.
It would be recalled that the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo had said in a statement that the Bank of Industry under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Industry, had secured a $1 billion syndicated loan to support Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in the country, and that the loan is expected to improve the capacity of the bank to effectively support MSMEs across key sectors.
By: Corlins Walter