The Bank of Industry, (BoI), has disbursed N328million loan to beneficiaries of the Kaduna Start up Entrepreneurship Programme, (KADSTED), whose business proposals met the bank’s risk acceptance criteria.
Acting Managing Director, BoI, Mr. Waheed Olagunju disclosed this in Kaduna yesterday during the 2nd graduation ceremony of the trained-entrepreneurs of the Kaduna Start Up Entrepreneurship Programme, (KADSTEP).
Out of the 500 students that enlisted in the programme, 375 candidates who met the required cut-off grade graduated.
KADSTED was designed by the Kaduna State Government in conjunction with the Kaduna Business School and the BoI to empower aspiring entrepreneurs to be able to access various intervention funds available to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the state.
The loan deal affords successful small business operators in the state the opportunity to leverage on existing N1billion matching fund arrangement between the development finance institution and the Kaduna State Government.
Meanwhile, the BOI has partnered with Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to increase agricultural loan portfolio in the country.
The agencies would provide more support to all the stakeholders in the value chain including input producers, farmers, agro dealers, agro processors, industrial manufacturers as well as trade and export merchants.
Speaking with journalists at the signing of Memorandum of Understanding, (MoU), between two agencies, the acting Managing Director of the BOI, Mr. Olagunju, said that agricultural producers would have unprecedented access to loans at low prices as the risk-sharing collaboration seeks to lower interest rates. The Managing Director of the NIRSAL, Mr. Aliyu Abdulhameed, commended BOI boss for his acceptance, cooperation and commitment to the success of the initiative.
He said that the signing of MoU was a conclusion of several months of intense engagement between NIRSAL and BOI with focus on defining a collaborative framework to increase financing to the agricultural sector by leveraging the strengths of our organizations.
