N220bn MSME Fund: CBN disburses N76.9bn to entrepreneurs in 5 yrs

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that it has disbursed N76.9 billion to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Funds (MSMEs) from inception in 2013 to 2017.

The breakdown extracted from CBN 2017 annual report showed that N53.1 billion (69.01 per cent) was disbursed through state governments, N12.6 billion (16.38 per cent) through commercial banks and N10.2 billion (13.24 per cent) through microfinance banks.

Others were NGO-MFIs, N0.5 billion (0.65 per cent), cooperatives, N0.4 billion (0.55 per cent); and development finance institutions (DFIs), N10.0 million (0.01 per cent); and Grants, N0.1 billion (0.17 per cent).

Extract from CBN 2017 annual report disclosed further that the sum of N7.5 billion was repaid in 2017, representing an increase of 53.3 per cent over the N4.8 billion in 2016.

“Cumulative repayment under the intervention stood at N13.4 billion, at end-December 2017,” the 2017 report of CBN disclosed on Thursday.

But in 2017, a total of N4.3 billion was disbursed under the wholesale funding and grant components of the MSMEDF.

“This represented a decline of 81.3 per cent, below the N23.0 billion disbursed in 2016, due to reduction in the number of approvals, following intensified efforts on recovery.

“The sum of N4.2 billion (98.0per cent) was wholesale funding through PFIs to finance MSMEs, while N0.1 billion (two per cent) was disbursed as grant to facilitate the registration of microfinance banks on credit bureaux and their integration into the credit reporting system.

“Analysis of the wholesale funding by PFIs indicated that financial cooperatives accessed N62.0 million (1.5 per cent); commercial banks, N0.37 billion (8.8 per cent); microfinance banks, N1.6 billion (38.5 per cent);

non-bank microfinance institutions or Non-Governmental Organisation-Microfinance Institutions (NGO-MFIs), N7.5 million (0.2 per cent); and state governments, N2.1 billion (51.0 per cent),” the CBN report added.