FG to commence MSME de-risking fund in May

The federal government says it will commence a de-risking fund to improve access to affordable financing for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The Special Adviser to the President on Job Creation and MSMEs, Temitola Adekunle-Johnson, said this at an event organised by the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) in Abuja at the weekend.

Adekunle-Johnson said the de-risking fund was part of a broader strategy to address high lending rates and boost small businesses’ growth across the country.

“In the month of May, we are going to be launching two very important schemes. One is the de-risking fund for SMEs and we are encouraging state governments and our commercial banks to come together to ensure that SMEs are able to get loan facilities for less than the ridiculous 28 per cent or 30 per cent.

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“It is not sustainable. So, we are trying to ensure that when the state government brings a facility, we get a commercial bank that will match that fund,” he explained.

He added that the federal government planned to expand MSME hubs across the country to 20 at the end of the year from the 10 currently available.

Earlier, the President of NASME, Dr Abdulrashid Yerima, called for urgent and practical support for women-owned MSMEs in the country, stressing the need for actionable steps beyond policies.

Citing a World Bank report, Yerima stated that women account for 55 per cent of the global employment and remain critical to MSMEs’ growth and GDP contribution.

He identified access to finance, markets, capacity building, and corporate governance as the major challenges facing women entrepreneurs, adding that NASME had prioritised addressing these concerns.

“We present them to development partners and banks and provide the necessary capacity building. We also support them in exports through our Export Readiness Programme,” he said.