The Central Bank of Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria has listed the conditions that must be fulfilled by individuals and companies willing to access its N50bn intervention fund.

The apex bank had last week unveiled the fund in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which had led to unprecedented disruptions to global supply chains, sharp drop in global crude oil prices, turmoil in global stock and financial markets, lockdown of large swaths movements of persons in many countries, among others.

These outcomes have had severe consequences on households’ livelihoods and business activities, resulting from drop in global demand, declined consumer confidence and slowdown in production.

In this respect, the CBN introduced the N50bn Targeted Credit Facility as a stimulus package to support households and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the guidelines released by the CBN, those that can benefit from the fund are households with verifiable evidence of livelihood adversely impacted by COVID-19; existing enterprises with verifiable evidence of business activities adversely affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and enterprises with bankable plans to take advantage of opportunities arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the CBN guideline, activities covered under the scheme include agricultural value chain activities; hospitality (accommodation and food services); health (pharmaceuticals and medical supplies); and airline service providers.

Others are manufacturing/value addition; trading and any other income-generating activities as may be prescribed by the CBN.

The guidelines said the scheme would be financed from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund.

It said the eligible participating financial institution for the Scheme would be NIRSAL Microfinance Bank. In terms of loan limit, the apex bank said the loan amount would be determined based on the activity, cashflow and industry size of beneficiary, subject to a maximum of N25m for SMEs.

It said households can access a maximum of N3m while working capital would be a maximum of 25 per cent of the average of the previous three years’ annual turnover