40,000 Households Apply for CBN’s 50bn Facility

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) had disclosed that 40,000 households have applied for the N50 billion Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

It said that the number was 50 percent of a total 80,000 applicants that applied for the facility.

The disbursement of the fund would commence next week, Managing Director of NIRSAL, Mr Abubakar Kure, disclosed in Abuja on Tuesday.

The N50 billion TCF stimulus package had recently been announced by the CBN to support households and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) affected by COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Kure said the primary objective of the facility was to allow firms stay in business and ensure people were employed to mitigate the harm on the economy due to the coronavirus.

Speaking further, Mr Kure noted that the issue of business plan as a requirement for MSMEs applications as stipulated by CBN guideline had been difficult in the application process and they had to do away with them eventually.

“At the start of the process, business plans which NIRSAL received from loan applicants were highly substandard and to ensure high standard and efficient processing, an optional, the automated business plan was provided by a service provider at a highly discounted fee.

“This is to avoid applicants being charged excessively by other consultants and to help people during the stay at home period and to make the application process easy.

“We got a third party service provider to enable applicants to access the business plan through the internet,” he said.

The NISARL managing director said the management of the bank then later resolved that the business plan was no longer a mandatory requirement and the third party provision of a business plan was also not compulsory.

Mr Kure said the bank would still welcome applications from credible businesses and households affected with COVID-19 with a view to mitigating the effects in the country.

Earlier this week, Business Post reported that CBN warned that it did not charge on the stimulus package and that the package was to help MSMEs and vulnerable households.

This was clarified by the Director, Corporate Communications, CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor in a statement on Monday.

“The attention of the CBN has again been drawn to false reports in the social media circles that loan seekers and owners of small-scale businesses who apply for loans provided to cushion the effects of COVID-19 are required to pay a certain amount as application processing fee.

“Members of the public, particularly households and owners of small-scale businesses, are therefore advised to disregard any message requiring them to pay any amount to process their applications.

“Prospective applicants are advised to approach NIRSAL Microfinance Bank or the CBN branch nearest to them for clarification on the procedure for accessing any of the CBN-related loans,” he said in the statement.