President Goodluck Jonathan today flagged-off the disbursement of the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSME) in Abuja. The President while declaring open, the 8th annual MSME finance conference themed “MSME Financing in Nigeria: Past, Present and Future” made the announcement.
Speaking at the conference organized to look at the MSME finance sub-sector from a holistic perspective, the president informed that the Federal Government would establish a one-state development finance institution that would provide long term funds up to 15 years for industrial development as part of measures to enhance the contributions of MSME to economic growth.
The guidelines of the Fund stipulate that each state of the federation will be able to access N2 billion which will be administered to beneficiaries at an interest rate of nine per cent. Sixty per cent of the fund is said to have been set aside for providing financial services to women in order to address their peculiar financial exclusion circumstances.
Jonathan assured that the existing development finance institutions would be restructured for better performance and increased access to finance by the MSME.
The president hinted that he was kick-starting the disbursement of the fund to participating financial institutions and state governments for onward lending to MSME across the country in view of the enormity of the task of making MSME viable.
He then expressed optimism that the governors would hold their special plenary session to showcase their efforts towards promoting inclusive growth through micro-credit delivery, poverty reduction, job creation and economic empowerment, maintaining that Nigerians must be provided an opportunity to live a better and more productive life
Earlier, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga pointed out that small businesses accounted for about half of the Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP), but lamented that over the years, the sub-sector had not received enough attention.
According to the Minister, only eight percent of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the country have access to financing.
Aganga added that the launch of the N250 billion MSME Development Fund facility represented a bold statement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it was committed to enhancing the growth of small businesses in the country.
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