The Federal Government is offering loan facilities up to N1 billion at a nine per cent interest rate to businesses, including manufacturers, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun has said.
Edun said the step was taken because the President Bola Tinubu-led administration acknowledged the difficulty that entrepreneurs face in obtaining reasonably priced capital for their businesses.
He said small-scale entrepreneurs could access up to N1million in credit facility and larger enterprises up to N1billion.
This, he indicated, was less expensive than the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) current recommendation of 26.25 per cent for commercial banks.
The minister also said the focus was on addressing food insecurity and nutrition, as well as increasing food production.
He said: “Likewise, the emphasis is on helping small-scale businesses through grants, and nano enterprises through grant funding.’’
That is being rolled out and it’s being done in a manner which, as I said before, is a world-class standard where you identify biometrically the person that is the beneficiary and you pay them through a digital process which you can easily reconcile.
“That is the emphasis, to make sure that we ramp up that speed and the scale of the help that is there even loans are nine percent for medium scale enterprises, up to N1 million for the smaller enterprises and then for the larger enterprises up to N1 billion funding at nine per cent so that those manufacturing firms can invest grow the economy employ people produce more goods that will help to bring down inflation.”
The minister also assured that food prices would fall in the coming months, stating that the government has allocated special funding for infrastructure to boost agricultural output.
“Inflation, yes, it is high at 33.65 per cent, food inflation at 40.5 per cent is worrisomely high but the fact is that inflation is coming down, month-on-month. It is slowing and it is expected to reduce as we continue the dry season harvest and then we go into the wet season harvest. That is the place to focus on and a lot of emphasis is being placed on that to get agriculture output up, to get prices down, and that will be a big factor in bringing down inflation,” he said.
