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The Bankers Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at the end of its meeting on Thursday October 5, 2017 disclosed that the disbursement of N26 billion special fund set up for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) particularly in the Agricultural sector will commence before the end of 2017.
The special fund is a 5 percent equity contribution from the profit after tax of the commercial banks in Nigeria.
Addressing financial journalist in Lagos, the managing director of Unity Bank Plc Mrs Oluwatomi Somefun noted that the frame work for the fund has been developed and finalized.
She added that CBN has created a special export intervention fund, which according her would generate more foreign exchange to the country, which would equally be beneficial to the SMEs.
“This will be closely monitored and we expect a lot of our SMEs to benefit from this scheme. The issue we have in the past is the failure of some exporters to repatriate the foreign exchange generated, and the CBN has agreed with the Bankers Committee to sanction defaulting exporters,” she stressed.
The managing director of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc Emeka Emuwa commented on the collateral registry, which is targeted at the small and medium enterprises, so they can be able to access loans from banks even as Nigeria exists recession. He advised Nigerian to be very vigilant as the year comes to an end because a lot of Ponzi scheme will be out to deceive people with unrealistic returns.
Kayode Akinkungbe, Managing Director of FBN Merchant Bank said the committee commended the CBN on the success in the foreign exchange market. For the CBN director banking supervision Ahmed Abdullahi, said the committee also discussed the fragile growth of 0.55 per cent that the economy recorded in the second quarter.
CBN officials and the chief executives of banks that had interface with financial journalists includes CBN Director of Banking Supervision Ahmed Abdullahi, Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc Mrs Oluwatomi Somefun, Managing Director of FBN Merchant Bank Kayode Akinkungbe, Managing Director of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc Emeka Emuwa and CBN Acting Director of Corporate Communications Isaac Okorafor.
Photo Caption: CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele
