- NIRSAL Says 84, 478 Households, 9, 679 SMEs Have Benefitted From Scheme
The Lagos Chambers Of Commerce and Industry, LCCI and the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN have lamented the inability of many Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs and households to access the N50bn COVID-19 Loan offered by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN for MSMEs and household impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
This is even as the LCCI threatened to take up the matter with the management of Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, NISRAL the $500million Non-Bank Financial Institution wholly-owned by the CBN created to Redefine, Dimension, Measure, Re-Price and Share agribusiness-related credit risks in Nigeria.
The acting Director-General, MAN, Ambrose Oruche, said 12 of MAN’s members who applied for the loan were not credited. He lamented that there was no acknowledgment from NISRAL Microfinance Bank saddled with the responsibility of disbursing the loan.
“We had 12 companies that qualified; we prepared their business plans and sent their applications. The microfinance bank did not acknowledge the application not to talk of giving out the loan. Some households that were affected by the pandemic and applied in Lagos and got acknowledgment for their applications were not considered. Since manufacturers did not get it. So, who took the N50bn?” he asked.
Similarly, the Chairman, SME Group at Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Daniel Okezie said none of the applicants to the N50bn CBN COVID-19 facility got the loan despite meeting all the criteria and promised to take the matter up with NIRSAL.
“Most of our members were able to meet up with the conditions for both the COVID-19 SME loan and the CBN SME and agric loan that is still running now. Most of our members are qualified.
We are trying to take it up with the NISRAL head in Lagos. The main requirement was that applicants must have had some kind of training on entrepreneurship and most of our members have that.
There are other conditions given, which they met. But incidentally, they did not get the loan. We refuse to believe they are not qualified” he said.
Recall that the CBN had introduced a N50bn COVID-19 Targeted Credit Facility aimed at providing financial relief to households and small businesses as they cope with the economic impact of the pandemic.
The apex bank said the loan disbursements would be based on the activity, cash flow, and industry size of the beneficiaries.
It said each eligible SMEs would receive a maximum of N25m while qualified households could access a maximum of N3m each.
To ensure easy access to the credit facility, the CBN promised to waive the provision of guarantor requirements for applicants.
Also, the CBN said all applicants to the N50bn credit facility that had completed the application processes and submitted their account details should expect credit alerts 48 hours afterward.
MAN and LCCI have now come out to say that many who applied for the loan through NISRAL’s online platform did not get an acknowledgment of their applications while only a few got feedback from the organization.
NISRAL on its part posited that 84, 478 households have benefitted from the scheme with N35.5bn disbursed. They also disclosed that 9, 679 SMEs have also benefited from N16bn disbursed.
