The CEO\Managing Director of Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr Olukayode Pitan, has said it was becoming more difficult nowadays in the country for average Nigerians to get people that will stand as guarantors for them to obtain loans from money lenders including banks.
He gave this revelation on Monday in Lagos at a workshop organised by the Senator Tokunbo Abiru Foundation in conjunction with the Fate Foundation for no fewer than 1,000 micro, small and medium scale business owners in Lagos East Senatorial District.
The one-day event held at CMD Shangisha has some other major figures in the country’s MSMEs ecosystem such as the Executive Chairman, Lagos State Inland Revenue Service (LIRS), Mr. Ayodele Subair; Executive Secretary, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, Mrs Tejumola Abisoye, officials from Small and Medium Enterprise Development Association of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), in attendance.
According to Mr Pitan, funding is one of the major issues in business anywhere globally and the requirement to access loans from the Bank of Industry for example is very simple.
He said one of these requirements was for beneficiaries to provide a minimum of two guarantors, which he said many of them usually find difficult to get.
He said a business owner having untainted integrity is a great key to success but disheartening that so many don’t have such virtue.
While commending Mr Abiru, who is the senator representing the Lagos East Senatorial District at the National Assembly for the workshop and business clinic, he said sharpening the knowledge and skills of MSMEs particularly in large numbers such as the one by the foundation and at this era of COVID-19 crisis would greatly help participants to grow their businesses to financial freedom.
He said most MSMEs in the country really suffered great loss during the general lockdown and that the situation became worse because what affected one certainly affected other associated businesses.
He said unfortunately some are still struggling to come back to life while some others would never recover.
While assuring Mr Abiru that BoI will support his vision with N100 million loan facilities to deserving participants so as to further scale up the effort, he asked other individuals, particularly the politicians and corporate organisations across the country to equally help business owners in their areas.
He said it would be of great advantage for Nigeria as a country and its people to get a reasonable number of youths out of poverty, noting that having many of them unemployed is dangerous for all.
Speaking earlier, Senator Abiru, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Industries, said he organised the workshop to enhance the competency of owners of MSMEs in his senatorial district so as to enable them to do their businesses more profitably.
He said lack of the right knowledge and skills had been identified as one of the major reasons for the failure of many MSMEs, especially in emerging economies such as Nigeria.
He said whereas MSMEs play critical roles in the nation’s economic development as the sector, according to him, accounts for about 90% of businesses and more than 70% of employment opportunities globally.
He said even the latest SMEDAN/NBS MSME Survey in Nigeria indicates that the sector contributes nearly 50% of the country’s GDP and accounts for over 80% of employment in the country.
“It is therefore instructive to assist the struggling businesses which were mostly affected by COVID-19 pandemic with workable business solutions in the new normal world we are,” he stressed.
He said the assistance would come in various forms even as he announced N100 million soft loan support scheme for the trainees as working capital, as well as asset finance for equipment acquisition with the deserving beneficiaries to get between N100, 000 and N1 million at not more than 6 per cent interest rate.
He also gave each of them seven different books written by foremost experts and deal with Tax Management, Human Capital, Financial Management, Marketing and Communications, Strategy, Legal and digital technology to use as reference materials as they journey along.
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