By David Agba
Abuja
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has said that Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) are fighting tooth and nail to frustrate the establishment of an SME Bank in Nigeria.
The Director General of SMEDAN, Umar Bature Masari, who disclosed this at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja noted that the inability of the government to establish the bank has hindered the growth of the MSMEs sub sector in the country.
According to the Director General, SMEs bank when established will provide a sustainable means of funding for MSMEs saying the bank will help Nigerian realize their potential in value addition for all the products that are produced in large quantity.
Masari said: “It will go a long way to solve the unemployment problem in Nigeria.”
The SMEDAN boss urged commercial banks to do more to enable SMEs have easy access to finance.
The DG noted that many SMEs were not applying to access the N220 billion SMEs fund due to the high interest rate that is paid.
According to him, the 9 percent interest rate that was proposed in the SME policy is high considering the level of poverty in the country.
“How many Nigerians can even access funds and pay back the 9 percent interest proposed in the policy?
“How can you ask somebody who cannot feed properly for collateral or how do you become your own boss if you can’t access funds.
To overcome this challenge, Masari called for the imposition of taxes on imported finished products. “Tax these items and allow the monies to go into financing SMEs. Whatever money you accumulate you can use it to provide very cheap rate,” he added.
