Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that President Goodluck Jonathan will today begin the disbursement of the N220billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) development fund.
Emefiele, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja while speaking at the 8th annual MSME finance conference.
The conference with theme “MSME financing in Nigeria: Past, present and future” was conceptualized to look at the MSME finance sub-sector from a holistic perspective.
Sixty per cent of the fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women in order to address their peculiar financial exclusion circumstances.
Based on the guidelines of the fund, each state of the federation would be able to access the sum of N2bn which would be administered to beneficiaries at an interest rate of nine per cent.
It would be recalled that the apex bank had signed Memorandum of Understanding with governors from Delta, Akwa Ibom, Osun, Oyo, Bayelsa, Gombe, Zamfara, Enugu, Ondo and Benue state to access the fund.
Also, two per cent of the fund would be made available for economically active physically challenged entrepreneurs.
Speaking at the event, Emefiele said since the economy in recent time had been driven by growth in the non oil sector, there is need to provide affordable and efficient finance services for MSMEs.
He said, “In the last seven years,our economy expanded by seven per cent and in the first quarter of 2014, the real Gross Domestic Product grew by 6.2 per cent mainly driven by an 8.2 per cent growth in the non oil sector.
“However, sustaining the developmental strides with inclusive growth would depend largely on provision of affordable and efficient financial services for MSME particularly the micro enterprises who account for about 90 per cent of MSME in Nigeria.
“It is imperative that this segment of the financial system be strengthened in order to forestall the social adverse consequences of financial exclusion.”
He said access to finance has a multiplier effect on the economy as it would have the much needed catalytic effect on job creation and poverty reduction.