BoI Disburses N450m to Ogun SMEs

• BoI Disburses N450m to Ogun SMEs

Micro credit disbursement by the Bank of Industry under the Federal Government’s Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme in Ogun State has hit over N450m.

According to the Development Finance Institution, over 7,000 beneficiaries across 130 associations have so far accessed the marketmoni loans ýin the state.

A statement from it quoted the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, as saying during the BoI’s presentation of loan certificates to beneficiaries of the GEEP programme tagged “Marketmoni alert train don land,” that the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises were a major catalyst for economic growth and development of big industries.

He added that the MSMEs in the country had not been able to reach their potential due to lack of access to funds.

The Managing Director, BoI, Olukayode Pitan, who was represented by the bank’s Executive Director, Micro Enterprise, Mrs. Toyin Adeniji, was quoted as saying that the objective of the event was to share with associations and cooperative leaders the benefits and how to access the loans.

Pitan said, according to statistics, over 80 per cent of micro enterprises lacked access to affordable credit, adding that even when loans were available, they came at very high cost to the borrower.

“Based on this premise, the federal government set up a social intervention programme to provide access to affordable micro credit to existing micro businesses in Nigeria. The GEEP provides non-interest rates loans up to N100,000 and N50,000 to first timers in four target segments which include market women, traders, artisans and farmers,” he said.