Economic growth: BCM to disburse N26 billion on Agriculture, SMEs

By Adeola Tukuru Abuja

Th e Bankers Committee Meeting yesterday affi rmed that the sum of N26billion will be disbursed in the newly inaugurated board on Agriculture and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMES) to support the growth in the economy.

Th e BCM comprising of all the banks across the country also said all the banks will set aside a portion of their profi ts which would be made available for equity investment in Agriculture and SMEs.

Th e Managing Director of Union Bank,Mr Emeka Emuwa, while briefi ng newsmen yesterday in Abuja explained that the funds is ready to start implementing adding that there will be communication as to how to access the funds . He assured that these will be a good opportunity for enterprenueurs, small businesses and also farmers for equity funding for their businesses

Also speaking, the Managing Director of FSDH Merchant Bank, Mrs Hamda Ambah, said those who are interested in accessing such funds to support their agricultural ventures or small and medium scale enterprises should approach their banks now .

“Th ey should apply in their banks so that the banks will do sort of preliminary review and pass these requests on to the project review committee of this organisation”.

In addition ,the Executive Director, Standard Chartered Bank, Mrs. Mobola Fatoye, said one of the areas that get everyone excited is the foreign exchange market and thanks to the action of the CBN and investors and exporters window .

She explained that the window was set up in May this year and “it was very interesting when we were going through the meeting today and the statistics was given to us, so far the volume of trading that has gone on in that market is about $4billion.

“Th at is actually quite a good fi gure and it shows that the banks are doing a lot in contributing to many Foreign Direct Investments(FDIs)/FPIs investors in the market. ” In fact, there was one particularly single ticket that was done in August, and the price of the transaction itself was $240million. “So ,we are very hopeful that we are going in the right direction and we will eventually get a stage where the rate will truly converge and that is where we want to get to,” she said.

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