The acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, said the federal government is striving to provide micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with a credit facility of N2 million to N10 million without collateral.
Osibanjo made the announcement at the first edition of the 2018 MSME Awards held at the State House banquet hall in Abuja.
He added that in addition to the one-stop-shop launched in some states to carry out MSME clinics, the federal government would soon launch its shared facilities for the MSME initiative.
Osinbajo said the initiative would be partnered with the Bank of Industry (BOI), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
“This initiatives will provide MSME access to fully equipped cluster style facilities for which they can pay an affordable fee to operate”, NAN quoted him as saying.
“These facilities would have been pre-certified by relevant agencies like NAFDAC, Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and NEPC thereby removing the layers of bureaucracy that in the past held back many aspiring entrepreneurs.
“In the shared facilities, you already have the requisite licences that regulate your operation. So, using the facilities means that you will not go through all the regulatory bureaucracies.
“We will also partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks to launch a credit facility that will make available to MSME loans from N2m to N10m with a period of five to seven years with little or no collateral.
“The interest rate will be five percent. All that you need is to provide the committee with a bankable business proposal and guarantor,” he said.
