N50bn Covid-19 loan disbursement to commence next week-NIRSAL boss
The Managing Director of the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Abubakar Kure says that the N50 billion COVID-19 loan facility unveiled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will begin disbursements from next week.
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He also said that NIRSAL has received 80,000 applications on the N50 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) released by the CBN.
It would be recalled that CBN had in March announced the release of N50 billion TCF stimulus package to support households and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Kure said out of the number, 40,000 of the applicants that applied for the facility were households.
He said the objective of the facility was to allow firms to stay in business and ensure people stayed employed to mitigate the harm on the economy.
According to him, all is now set for the disbursement of the fund next week.
“The issue of the business plan was a requirement for MSMEs applications as stipulated by CBN guideline.
“At the start of the process, business plans which NIRSAL received from loan applicants were highly substandard and to ensure high standard and efficient processing, an optional, automated business plan was provided by a service provider at a highly discounted fee.
“This is to avoid applicants being charged excessively by other consultants and to help people during the stay at home period and to make the application process easy.
“We got a third-party service provider to enable applicants to access the business plan through the internet,” he said.
The managing director said the management of the bank had later resolved that the business plan was no longer a mandatory requirement and the third party provision of a business plan was also not compulsory.
He assured that Nigerians were adhering to the guidelines as laid down by CBN and NIRSAL microfinance bank.
Kure said the bank would still welcome applications from credible businesses and households affected with COVID-19 with a view to mitigating the effects.
Just recently, the CBN Director of Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, described reports from some media that the CBN was charging fees for applications as false.
Mr Okorafor said the negative reports were distractions hence people should disregard such false publications, adding that the loan facility was a relief to help businesses and people “in this trying period”, he said.
