By Fola James
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has set aside a whopping N121 billion to support women businesses as part of its efforts to boost the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs in the country.
The fund represents 60 per cent of the N220 billion set aside by the apex bank to promote MSMEs development and further expand women inclusiveness in small businesses.
According to a circular recently released by the Godwin Emefiele-led government bank titled “Guidelines for micro, small and medium enterprises development fund for non-interest financial institutions,” and signed by the Director, Development Finance Department, CBN, it said there is the need to bridge the gap in the MSMEs sub sector by making women to participate more.
“The sub-sector is characterised by huge financing gap which hinders the development of MSMEs, CBN said.
Recall that the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, few months ago said many women in the country have been badly hit by the corona virus pandemic and needed strong government to put their businesses back on track again.
The Buhari administration, had last June, followed up by unfolding special palliative measures targeted at women-owned medium and small businesses (MSME’s), to help them recover from the impact of COVID 19.
The Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework, RMPRSF law stipulates that government must ensure that 60 per cent of the MSMEs funds are accessed by women doing small businesses.
The “Section 6.10 of the Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria, stipulates that ‘a Microfinance Development Fund shall be set up, primarily to provide for the wholesale funding requirements of MFBs/MFIs’.
It said the only way to bridge the gender gap in the sub sector is “To fulfilL the provisions of section 4.2 (iv) of the policy, which stipulates that women’s access to financial services to increase by at least 15% annually to eliminate gender disparity, 60% of the Fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women.”
Apart from the 40 per cent set aside for women in SMSEs, the apex bank also stated that 12 per cent would go to economically active persons living with disabilities and start-up businesses.
The CBN further stated in the circular that the objectives of wholesale funding were to provide facilities to eligible Primary Financial Institutions, PFIs for on-financing to MSMEs; improve the capacity of the PFIs to meet credit needs of MSMEs; and reduce the rate of financing to the PFIs and the beneficiaries.
