The Central Bank of Nigeria‘s Bankers Committee is now ready to begin paying out the N500 million loans to creative industry SMEs under the Creative Industry Financing Initiative.
This was disclosed during the end of the committee’s meeting held at the CBN headquarters in Abuja on Thursday. The meeting was attended by the Chief Executives of all the Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria as well as other top officials of the apex bank.
Nairametrics had previously reported when CBN’s Bankers Committee decided to provide more funding for the development of the creative sector of the economy. The decision was made as a result of the committee’s conviction that the sector holds the key to job creation, poverty reduction and inclusive growth.
How to apply for the CIFI loan: According to the CBN, the creatives eligible to apply are those who fall within the industries of fashion, Information Technology, movie production, movie distribution, music and software engineering student loan.
Having satisfied the requirements of having a business in any of the areas highlighted above, the Managing Director, FBN Quest Merchant Bank, Kayode Akinkugbe who was present at the meeting, urged the interested applicants to prepare a business plan or proposal on how much is needed for such a business and submit applications to their banks for approval and disbursement.
More details: The attendees at the meeting included Director, Banking Supervision Department, CBN, Mr. Ahmed Abdullahi, MD, Ecobank, Patrick Akinwuntan; MD, FSDH Merchant Bank, Hamda Ambah; Citibank MD, Akin Dawodu; and Director of Corporate Communications at the apex bank, Isaac Okorafor.
The meeting also gave insights on the following topics, consumer lending, mortgage financing and the need to encourage the culture of savings among Nigerians.
On real estate, Akinkugbe said the committee had decided to unlock the huge liquidity that various people had in the sector.
“Another initiative discussed is in the real sector, we want to release the trapped liquidity that various investments that people have in the real estate, in land or in property. Recognising that there are some obstacles but ultimately we must find a way to navigate through.”
The CBN noted that under the CIFI loan initiative, beneficiaries could get up to N500m loans at nine per cent interest rate.
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What is the source of the funds? Cash reserve of banks or otherwise? The regulator should be clear on this and stop making vague funding schemes.