The Bank of Industry on Wednesday unveiled a N75 billion loan program for micro, small and medium businesses with single digit interest rate as part of its intervention initiatives, .
MD/CEO of BOI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, at the 2024 BOI Annual Public Lecture series, said they are currently reviewing 211,248 applications and have started the disbursement to qualified applicants.
According to him, they aim to broaden participation and ensure inclusiveness by deploying business clinics across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, which will also improve the quality of applications in the coming days.
He said while we are enabling Nano, Micro, Small and Medium size enterprises, which are critical to the growth of the economy in terms of their impact on economic growth and job creation, our efforts to support large production enterprises is also progressing under the N75 billion FGN Manufacturing Sector Fund.
He said about 140 manufacturing companies will receive loans of up to N1 billion at single digit interest rates.
“The funds under this program have been fully allocated to successful applicants across the six geopolitical zones of the country, and disbursements have also commenced.
“For transparency of the process under this scheme, we are working with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to ensure that all beneficiaries are real manufacturers.
“This is to provide additional validation of the loan applicants for the program.
Finally, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to our guest lecturer, Prof. Akpan Ekpo, the panellists, and all those gathered here this morning to hear from our renowned economist.
He said the Federal Government has recently announced plans to expand the programme by developing 300 new MSMEs for each state including the Federal Capital Territory, resulting in 11,100 new rural-based MSMEs across the nation.
According to him, the Bank has also recently signed a partnership agreement with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to provide a ₦1 billion fund at a single-digit interest rate to Nano and Micro Enterprises in Nigeria.
He said under the partnership, Nano and Micro enterprises will access a maximum of ₦1.5 million and ₦2.5 million, respectively, at a single-digit interest of 7.5% for working capital and 5% for term loan, with a tenor of 24 months.
He said the Bank was also appointed as the executing agency for the Federal Government’s ₦200 billion Presidential Intervention Fund for enterprises.
“The Presidential Grants programme aimed to disburse N50,000 grants to 1 million Nano business owners, ensuring equitable distribution of these grants across the 774 local governments of the country.
” Under this programme, the sum of N37.9 billion has been disbursed to 758,197 beneficiaries across 774 local governments in the country.
We are working with State Governors through their state focal persons to complete our 1 million target,” he said.
