CBN Raises MSMEs Covid-19 Loan From N50bn To N100bn 

The Central Bank of Nigeria has increased its Covid-19 intervention under the Targeted Credit Facility from the initial N50bn to N100bn.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele gave the approval following the huge application that have been received under the facility.

The Director, Development Finance Department of the CBN, Mr Yila Yusuf, confirmed the development in a workshop for finance journalists in Abuja.

The CBN had introduced the
Targeted Credit Facility as a stimulus package to support households and
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises affected by the COVID-19
pandemic.

Based on the guidelines released by the CBN, those that can benefit from the fund are households with verifiable evidence of livelihood adversely impacted by
COVID-19;
and existing enterprises with verifiable evidence of business activities
adversely affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the CBN guideline, activities covered under the scheme include agricultural value chain activities; hospitality (accommodation and food services);
health (pharmaceuticals and medical supplies);
and airline service providers.

Others are
manufacturing/value addition; trading
and any other income generating activities as may be prescribed by the CBN.

THE WHISTLER had exclusively spoken to some of the beneficiaries of the CBN intervention who said that the loan had been able to assist them in reviving their businesses that were badly affected by the negative impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on the intervention, Yila said the apex bank had disbursed N72bn to over 120, 000 beneficiaries under the facility.

He said, “Once the COVID started in China, what the leadership of CBN under Governor Emefiele did was to try and create different scenarios of how we would respond to the pandemic depending on how it affects Nigeria.

“We brought out a broad stimulus package worth about N3.5trn across SMEs, manufacturing and healthcare because Governor Emefiele wanted activities to go on despite the lockdown, and then health, because our hospitals have not moved from basic provision of services to more advanced healthcare.

“With N3.5trn, the first thing we did was to put in place a N50bn Targeted Credit Facility for households and SMEs.

“We have disbursed N72bn to over 120, 000 beneficiaries and Governor Emefiele has increased the fund from N50bn to N100bn.”

Yusuf added, “We also put in place N100bn credit support for the healthcare sector. We provided them cheap access at five per cent, through the deposit money bank to access the N100bn set aside. As we speak, we’ve disbursed over N44bn to over 40 projects.

“We also looked at helping to domesticate our pharmaceutical and hospital-related activities.

“We also set aside N1trn for our manufacturing sector; that’s where we have huge, significant employment – textile, housing, food and agro-processing, etc. – and during the COVID-19 period, we have disbursed over N200bn to a wide range of people.”

The CBN director said the intervention was aimed at supporting the federal government’s quest for food security, especially with the border closure and the global lockdown that came with the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on the need for the country to be self-sufficient, he said, “Because of the protectionist mode that a lot of countries are going into, there’s an opportunity for us to properly diversify into agriculture

“So, we need to produce more, especially grains. We need to achieve national food security and we need to be able to start looking at how we can even begin to export for us to be able to earn forex, because there’s already a decline in the major forex inflow we get from oil.

“We really need to start looking at how we can ensure we have food self-sufficiency and also begin to export to earn more foreign exchange.

“We have significant land that has been unlocked and so we need also to ensure we are doing a lot of processing in-country.”

Yusuf also spoke on the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, saying it has been largely successful.

According to Yusuf, without the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, especially since the pandemic, the country would have had challenges producing food.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services of the CBN, Mr. Edward Adamu, said the CBN was focused on stimulating economic growth.

Adamu said, “I want to reiterate the strong commitment of the CBN towards supporting measures that would bring the nation from our over dependence on imported goods, so that we can create wealth, create jobs for our teaming youths and just improve lives and livelihood of Nigerians as we strive to promote a very stable financial system.

“I want to emphasis what the CBN governor has consistently said, that the central bank is committed to its core mandate of maintaining price and exchange rate stability.

“We are also committed to ensuring that we have a conducive macroeconomic environment for growth.

“We are committed to fostering development for an efficient credible and reliable credit system.

“We are committed to a very stable exchange rate and the growth of our reserves and diversifying the economy.”

He also said the CBN would continue to support the diversification through its intervention programmes and development finance in the agric sector, manufacturing sector, MSMEs because they are critical to the development of the economy.