Osinbajo: MSMEs to get N10m collateral-free loans

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says the federal government is working towards providing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) a credit facility of N2 million to N10 million without collateral.

Osibanjo made the disclosure at the maiden edition of the MSMEs Award 2018 held at the state house in Abuja on Wednesday.

The award ceremony got over 300 nominations across the nation.

Osinbajo launched the MSME Clinic in 2017 as part of efforts to encourage the contributions of MSMEs to Nigeria’s economic growth.

The acting president said he was delighted to reward and recognise outstanding MSMEs as they represent remarkable examples of Nigerian entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation.

According to him, efforts are underway to double the government’s commitment to ensuring that MSMEs find an enabling environment to thrive.

He said that in addition to the one-stop-shop launched in some states to carry the MSME Clinics’ intervention, the federal government would soon launch its shared facilities for the MSMEs initiative.

Osinbajo said the initiative would be in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BOI), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), 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,” Osinbajo said.

“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.”

Osinbajo said that the federal government was also exploring an initiative by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to allow a special window of 90 days for MSMEs which had not registered their businesses to do so at a highly subisidised price.

He said he was aware of complaints from some states and warned that he would not tolerate the shirking of responsibilities from agencies on the one-stop- shop for MSME.