By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The high interest rate charged by commercial banks in Nigeria is making things difficult for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and affecting their survival.
This was the submission of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA).
To solve this problem, ECCIMA has called on the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) to intervene and come up with ways the rate can be lowered to favour entrepreneurs.
Speaking on Saturday at the 28th edition of 2017 Enugu International Trade Fair tagged ‘Promoting Nigeria’s Industrial Sector and SMEs for Inclusive and Robust Economy’, President of ECCIMA, Rev Ugochukwu Chime, stated that, “May we commend the CBN for its recent score in breathing life into the naira through its intervention to enhance the value.
“However, we are worried how sustainable this could be without buoying up the productive sector, which will give a lot of value to our economic stability.”
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that, “A situation whereby businesses could only access bank credit with the interest rate of 25 or 30 per cent is quite worrisome.
“This cannot, in anyway, help in increasing our productive level, GDP and stabilising our economy.
“Therefore, we wish to counsel that the CBN must find a way to intervene, to save indigenous businesses and the industrial sector from imminent cringe.”
Mr Chime also said there was need for a policy to ensure continuous flow of low interest rate soft loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), adding that the policy became imperative since SMEs were the major employers of labour in the economy.
