The President Bola Tinubu-led federal government says it has disbursed the sum of N55.657 billion to manufacturers, and micro, small and medium enterprises as part of the broader N200 billion Presidential Intervention Fund in supporting job creation and economic empowerment.
Minister of Finance and coordinating minister of the Economy Wale Edun made the claim yesterday at a town hall meeting on the Presidential Grants & Loans Scheme for MSMEs. He said the intervention funds are structured around three key programmes.
This is as the senior special assistant to the president on job creation and MSMEs Tola Adekunle-Johnson announced that the government is finalising plans to approve credit facilities to small businesses at single-digit interest rates. He said the federal government is working on the programme in partnership with the states and some private sector partners led by Access and Wema Banks. Tola said the programme will take effect from the third quarter of 2025.
“From next year’s third quarter, this administration will start giving out single-digit loans in partnership with the states. 18 state governors have committed to it. We are going to provide that enabling environment and financial support to the MSMEs. We are working with the Bank of Industry,”.
The finance minister said as of today, N39.2bn has been disbursed to 784,394 beneficiaries across the 774 local government areas and the FCT under the presidential conditional grant scheme of the government, while N357mn has been disbursed to 380 MSMEs under the MSME intervention fund. Also, he disclosed that N16.1bn has been disbursed to 22 companies, with another N10 billion in the pipeline for 28 additional projects. In total, 148 companies have been approved for support, spread across every region of the country.
A recent SMEDAN-NBS survey indicated that lack of finance accounts for approximately 27.8 per cent of the main challenges faced by MSMEs. The presidential intervention fund is designed to directly address the funding gap, supporting business growth, job creation, and economic resilience. One of the administration’s key priorities is job creation. Through the casual jobs scheme led by the office of the vice president. Edun, who was represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Lydia Shehu Jafiya said “We are set to create 77,000 jobs within the MSME sector.”
The initiative aims to generate over 2,000 jobs per state in the first three months, providing a pathway for young Nigerians to gain meaningful employment. “Combined with the MSME and manufacturing sector funds, the programmes are creating a solid foundation for economic stability and inclusive growth across Nigeria,” she said.
MD/CEO of Access Bank Roosevelt Ogbonna the presidential intervention scheme is coming from a very strong partnership between the government and key players in the private sector. The private sector is led by access and we are a bank. “We are committed to this programme. We are committed to the MSMEs. We want to be known as Nigeria’s MSMEs bank. We want to be known as Nigeria’s women’s bank, Ogbonna stated at the event in Abuja yesterday. He said Access Bank had set aside $1 billion for lending to MSMEs in 13 sectors in 2022.
