Though it is generally agreed that lack of or inadequate access to cheap funds is one of the biggest problems confrontingmicro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, there are however some not-so-difficult sources of funds available for MSMEs and entrepreneurs in the country. And moreover these funding organizations provide funds at rates far cheaper than you can get in any bank in Nigeria.
These include Bank of Industry (BoI) loans,Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), Federal Government’s Special Intervention Fund (SIF) for MSMEs, Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) grant and, GroFin Fund, amongst others.
Bank of Industry
Bank of Industry (BoI) is a development finance institution (DFI) that offers entrepreneurs in Nigeria cheap or single-digit funds, often at nine percent lending rate.
The bank manages many intervention funds targeted at the MSMEs sub-sector by government and private organisations. The funds that entrepreneurs can access from BoI include: Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF), which is meant for serving members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). Candidates are allowed to submit their business ideas, which are then reviewed by a team of experts. The NYSC members whose ideas are marketable and bankable are then selected, trained for four weeks and there after loaned between N500,000 and N2 million.
Others are the Cottage Agro Processing (CAP) Fund for small and medium agro processors; Nolly Fund for stakeholders in the Nollywood industry, Fashion Fund for designers and other players in the value chain, a fund for the automotive industry and a N5 billion fund from Aliko Dangote to finance SMEs at a single digit rate.
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admin | Abbey Oyetunji
Abbey Oyetunji is a Business Growth Strategist. An IT Mogul & Web Developer. Reach via mail: [email protected]
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