The Bankers’ Committee, an umbrella body of senior officials of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and chief executive officers of banks in Nigeria, is set to hold enlightenment workshops on its new funding initiative for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Lagos, Kano and Aba.
Recall that the Bankers’ Committee recently introduced ‘Funding Nigeria SMEs initiative’, a new initiative to enable SMEs in Nigeria to access loans to grow their businesses. The initiative is in line with the Federal Government’s commitment to grow the SME sub-sector.
In a statement, Mr. Bonaventure Okaimo of Unity Bank, one of the participating banks, said: “To create the necessary awareness, we are organizing a one day public enlightenment workshop across three states of the federation on how SMEs can access funds, loans and grants available in the Funding Nigeria SMEs initiative”.
”This initiative, which is part of government’s economic diversification effort towards increased SME’s easy access to intervention funds, is aimed at growing small and medium scale businesses for effective contribution to the Nigerian economy.”
Okaimo explained that the sensitization workshops are billed to hold at The Zone Tech Park, by UPS, Gbagada/Oshodi Express Way on July 26 in Lagos, Meena Events Centre by Government House on August 2 in Kano and, at Binez Hotels on the August 9 in Aba.
He encouraged SMEs, particularly agro business owners, farmers, local manufacturers and facilitators to avail themselves of the opportunity of accessing funds by registering to be a part of the workshop, which he described as the first step towards being beneficiaries of the initiative.
The workshops would be anchored by experts from Deposit Money Banks, Central Bank of Nigeria, Ease of doing Business Team, Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Bank of Industry (BOI) and Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).