BEVERLY HILLS, January 19, (THEWILL) – The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, disbursed a total of N10 billion to Kano business firms affected by the pandemic, as part of the Bank’s intervention initiative to save the economy.
The disbursements were executed through a consortium of Kano Investment and Diaspora (KID), in partnership with the Foreign Commonwealth Development (FCD) and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).
The Director-General of KanInvest & Diaspora, Hajiya Hama Ali, disclosed this on Monday in Kano in a meeting to review the Kano Turnaround Project.
She said the target companies of the funds would be 50 and that the Kano agency would work with the affected companies to determine how much was needed for the economic turnaround.
She further said that the initial N10 billion would be increased after a meeting with CBN. She did not disclose when the meeting would hold.
“We and our development partners came up with this initiative to support our affected industries, because it is worrisome to see our industries in this condition.
“Our agency has produced an Expression of Interest (EoI) form for interested companies with February 25 as the deadline for the submission of applications.
“Our doors will be open to any company until the application reaches at least 50, from then we will see if they can exhaust the N10 billion or not,” she said.
The CBN in March 2020 introduced the N50 billion Targeted Facility for households and small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) that were particularly hard hit by COVID-19.
The objectives are to cushion the adverse effects of COVID-19 on households and MSMEs and support households and MSMEs whose economic activities had been significantly disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The facility also aimed to stimulate credit to MSMEs to expand their productive capacity through equipment upgrade, and research and development.
About the Author
