The Bank of Industry (BoI) under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in conjunction with international partners have concluded a 1 billion US dollar syndicated term loan to support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo who disclosed this at the Quantum Mechanics Limited MSMEs Survival Fund Capacity Building Programme in Abuja, noted that there is an ongoing discussion with Dunn & Bradstreet to establish an SME risk rating agency – the SME Rating Agency of Nigeria (SMERAN), to provide an empirical basis towards analysing the eligibility of SMEs to access credit.

As was published in VON , Adebayo said the loan is aimed at “further improving the capacity of the bank to effectively support Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) – across key sectors of the Nigerian economy – with affordable loans of medium to long-term tenor, alongside moratorium benefits.”

The Minister who spoke on efforts of the Federal Government at supporting the MSME in the country said, “I will like to reiterate that our Ministry fully supports MSMEs, as demonstrated by our MSME Survival Fund Initiative which was launched in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Federal Government as part of the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP); aimed at protecting MSME businesses from the shocks the Pandemic. The Fund comprises the following:

The Payroll Support Scheme which aims to support MSMEs in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs by paying up to N50,000 to a maximum of 10 employees in each MSME for three months;

The Artisan and Transport Grant which supports self-employed artisans with a one-off payment of N30,000 targeting 333,000 individuals;

“The General MSME Grant will provide 100,000 MSMEs with one-off grants of N50,000 each; and the Guaranteed Offtake Scheme will engage approximately 100,000 businesses across the country to produce items typically manufactured in their locality, targeting 300,000 beneficiaries. Free registration of companies for 250,000 beneficiaries.”

He explained that the survival fund was estimated to save at least 1.3 million jobs across the country while strengthening the growth potential of beneficiary businesses, stating that the successful implementation of the scheme so far has contributed to quickly pulling Nigeria out of the Covid-19 induced recession.

The Minister also said the National MSMEs Clinics supports the growth of small businesses across the country through the provision of critical infrastructure, with twenty-six of such clinics having impressive results.

He further disclosed that the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) has launched the Export Expansion Facility (EEF) under the NESP, to support the resilience of new and existing MSMEs to respond to the shocks of the COVID-19 Pandemic to retain and create more jobs, especially youth and women businesses through the Youth Export Development Programme (YEDP) and Promoting Women Inclusiveness in Non-Oil Export.