The Bank of Industry and the Abia State Government have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide N1bn to the Small and Medium Enterprise operators in the state.
A statement from BoI quoted the Acting Managing Director, BoI, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, as explaining during the MoU signing ceremony at the Government House, Umuahia, that the N1bn SME development fund would be equally contributed by the bank and the state government for onward lending to yearning entrepreneurs in the state, particularly those engaged in value addition and processing.
He said, “What we are trying to do now is to accentuate the industrialisation of Abia State, particularly in the SME sector vertically and horizontally, to increase the level of entrepreneurship in the state with its attendant multiplier effects.
“We need to add value to our products rather than exporting them in their crude form to countries where they are processed and sent back to us with more value and we pay heavily for them. The per capita incomes of those countries get much higher than we have here, and the quality of life and living standards are also much higher than we have here.
“By our estimation in the BoI, through every N1bn we lend, we are able to generate close to 10,000 jobs. And as resources permit, we can also increase the pool of funds. This is just a framework that we intend to start with.”
He announced that the bank was aiming to open a branch in Umuahia to enable it to bring more of its products and services closer to entrepreneurs in Abia State.
The Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, was quoted in the statement as saying that his government was resting on five pillars of development, adding that the first of the five pillars was the development of the SMEs.
Governor Ikpeazu noted that time had also come for Nigerians to take pride in what they produced. “Anything that is good enough for Nigerians should also be good for citizens of other countries,” he said.