The federal government said it has fully allocated the N75 billion Manufacturing Sector Fund (MSF) set aside to support manufacturing businesses under the N200 billion Presidential Intervention Fund initiated by President Bola Tinubu.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement, Fredrick Nwabufo, disclosed this while giving an update on the status of the Fund as of October 2024.
Under the real sector intervention initiative, the N75 billion MSF is set aside to support 75 eligible manufacturing businesses with up to N1 billion each at a single digit interest rate.
Nwabufo said that the Bank of Industry (BoI), which is overseeing the implementation of the programme, has processed and approved N78.5 billion for 143 manufacturing companies, with only N6.3 billion fully disbursed to 8 manufacturing companies, N9.1 billion at various stages of disbursement to 23 companies, while the remaining 112 companies valued at N63.1 billion are at various stages of meeting precedent conditions for disbursement.
His words: “BoI received several applications directly and has processed and approved 143 manufacturing companies with a total loan value of N78.5 billion.
“As of September 24, 2024, the bank has successfully disbursed the sum of N6.3 billion to eight manufacturing companies. 23 other projects valued at N9.1 billion are currently at various stages of disbursement.
“The remaining 112 companies valued at N63.1 billion are currently at various stages of meeting the conditions precedent to loan disbursement,” he stated.
Nwabufo added that BoI has met with the executives of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to ensure that all beneficiaries are real manufacturers.
“This is to provide additional validation of the loan applicants for the programme,” he said.
The Presidential aide also disclosed that 932 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have been evaluated and approved for the N75 billion MSME Intervention Fund (MIF).
The MIF seeks to attenuate the challenges faced by MSMEs, offering a maximum of N1 million each to 75,000 beneficiaries at a 9 percent interest rate.
“The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade & Investment (FMITI) transferred the public database of 832,359 MSMEs to the Bank of Industry on September 3, 2024.
“Out of the above number, only 211,248 applicants submitted completed information, out of which 932 have been evaluated and approved for disbursement, which is ongoing,” Nwabufo stated.
In addition, Nwabufo said, as at October 2024, “The sum of N38.8 billion has been disbursed to 774,593 beneficiaries across the 774 LGAs and area councils of the FCT under the N59 billion Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme (PCGS).
The N200 billion Presidential Intervention Fund (PIF) is in three parts – the N50 billion PCGS; the N75 billion MIF, and N75 billion MSF.