COVID-19: NIRSAL Receives 80,000 Applications for N50Bn CBN Stimulus Package

Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), has received 80,000 applications on the N50 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), according to Abubakar Kure, managing director of NIRSAL.

Mr. Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor

Kure, at a news conference in Abuja, said out of the number, 40,000 of the applicants that applied for the facility were households

The CBN had in March announced the release of N50 billion TCF stimulus package to support households and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Kure, the objective of the facility was to allow firms stay in business and ensure people stayed employed to mitigate the harm on the economy.

He said the disbursement of the fund would commence next week.

“The issue of business plan was a requirement for MSMEs applications as stipulated by CBN guideline.

“At the start of the process, business plans which NIRSAL received from loan applicants were highly substandard and to ensure high standard and efficient processing, an optional, automated business plan was provided by a service provider at a highly discounted fee.

“This is to avoid applicants being charged excessively by other consultants and to help people during the stay at home period and to make the application process easy.

“We got a third party service provider to enable applicants to access the business plan through the internet,” he said.

The managing director said the management of the bank had later resolved that the business plan was no longer a mandatory requirement and the third party provision of a business plan was also not compulsory.

He assured that Nigerians were adhering to the guidelines as laid down by CBN and NIRSAL micro finance bank.

Kure said the bank would still welcome applications from credible businesses and households affected with COVID-19 with a view to mitigating the effects.