In recognition of the joint importance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as well as the manufacturing sector, the Nigerian Bank of Industry (BoI) has provided a N57.24 million ($283,511) facility to fund 13 such enterprises in Kogi State, located in the central part of Nigeria. The package is part of the State BoI N2 billion ($9.95 million) MSME scheme to boost the capacities and expand the business frontiers of the benefactors.
“It is a well-known fact that Kogi State is richly endowed in agriculture, water resources and solid minerals. Some of the agricultural products include cassava, oil palm, cashew, cocoa, yam, rice, fish; while the solid minerals include iron ore, limestone, coal, among others,” commented BoI Managing Director Rasheed Olaoluwa, who was represented by Rasheed Olagunju, BoI Executive Director for SMEs.
“This has therefore created investment opportunities in agro-processing, iron and steel production, cement manufacturing, solid mineral beneficiation, water transportation, to mention but a few. The state also has huge tourism potential in view of its various pre-colonial relics as well as beautiful landscape and favourable weather conditions,” he added.
He made these comments while dishing out the cheques to the beneficiaries in Lokoja, the capital city of Kogi. He also emphasized that accessible funding would help present and future entrepreneurs in the state benefit from the bank’s desire to maintain a favourable climate for MSMEs in the country.
Indeed the bank has shown laudable support for MSMEs; recently, it created a full-fledged Directorate just for SMEs and appointed about 122 Business Development Service Providers (BDSPs) at zonal, state and national levels.
Additionally, it struck partnerships with 10 SME-friendly banks as a strategy to boost lending and provide working capital for SMEs.
“For the second phase of the programme, we would like to invite the State Government to key into BoI’s cluster-based product development initiative. By so doing, product clusters would be identified based on the comparative advantages of the various local government areas in the state and the enterprises in such locations will be financed under the matching fund scheme,” he concluded.
Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State described the occasion as a big milestone in the administration’s effort to industrialize and stimulate the state economy while generating employment.
“SMEs constitute a major vehicle for driving the economy progressively. But what constitutes a major impediment to the development of SMEs, especially in the state, are inadequate supply and cost of start- up capital among other major problems. To address this problem, the state government went into collaboration with the Bank of Industry and initiated this joint fund scheme to provide MSMEs entrepreneurs in the state the opportunity to access loans,” he commented.
By Emmanuel Iruobe
