The National Council on Small and Medium Enterprises has earmarked N4.5 billion for entrepreneurs with disabilities.
This was part of the resolutions of a meeting of the council chaired by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, at the State House in Abuja yesterday.
The fund represents two percent of the N220bn micro, small and medium enterprises facility launched last year by President Goodluck Jonathan. Briefing State House journalists after the meeting, the president of persons with disabilities, Adeboye Abioye, said the council considered persons with disabilities a critical factor in the scheme of things.
Earlier, Trade and Investment Minister Olusegun Aganga said the council had reduced collateral requirements for SMEs from 75 to 50 percent inclusive of nine percent interest rate. Aganga added that the focus of the meeting was more on micro businesses at the grassroots level. “These are the ones that constitute 99 percent of the total MSMEs sector and those are the ones that require the support of the Federal Government,” he said.
Also speaking, National Planning Minister Sulaiman Abubakar said the council resolved that special focus be given to the banks with the strongest infrastructure and capacity for “lending to the MSME sub-sector in the Central Bank of Nigeria strategy.”
