One hundred and forty manufacturing companies in the country have started receiving N1 billion loan from the Bank of Industry under the Federal Government’s N75 billion Manufacturing Sector Fund.
The loan is being provided to the firms drawn from the counrty’s six geo-political zones at single-digit interest rate.
BOI Managing Director Olasupo Olusi, who announced this during the bank’s inaugural annual public lecture series in Abuja yesterday, added that N77.65 billion in loans was being disbursed to about 1,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) in palm kernel oil processing, furniture making and other sectors in the 774 council areas in the country..
Olusi told the lecture attendees that, BOI worked with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to ensure that the 140 companies were real manufacturers.
The BOI boss added that the bank signed a partnership agreement with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) for the provision of the N1 billion single-digit interest loan.
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He said: “About 140 manufacturing companies will receive loans of up to N1 billion at single-digit interest rates. The funds under this programme 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 MAN to ensure that all beneficiaries are real manufacturers. This is to provide additional validation of the loan applicants for the programme,
“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 Federal Government Manufacturing Sector Fund.
“Under the partnership, Nano and Micro enterprises will access a maximum of N1.5 million and N2.5 million, respectively, at a single-digit interest of 7.5 percent for working capital and five percent for term loan, with a tenor of 24 months.
“The Presidential Grants programme aims 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, 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 one million target.
“As part of the intervention initiatives, we unveiled the N75 billion loan programme for micro, small and medium businesses under which enterprises that fall in this category will get up to N1 million single digit interest rate loans.
‘’We are currently reviewing 211,248 applications and have started the disbursement to qualified applicants. We aim to broaden participation and ensure inclusiveness by deploying business clinics across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which will also improve the quality of applications in the coming days.”