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As part of measures to support the newly created Agriculture/Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) fund, the Bankers Committee at the weekend pledged to contribute N30 billion from their Profit After Tax (PAT).
Speaking at the end of the 8th retreat, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele said: “The CBN will together with the banking sector establish an Agriculture/SME fund (AGSME Fund) from contributions of a portion on profit after taxes of Deposit Money Banks as a deliberate strategy to support the funding and access to finance by SMEs and primary agriculture”.
Explaining further, he said: “You know in the past, we had the Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme (SMEEIS) fund where the banks contributed a portion of their profit. But, that scheme was abandoned. So, we thought that this time when there is need to really stimulate growth and because we also know that having equity funds by investors, particularly local investors, has always been a thing in achieving the objective of agriculture and SMEs, we decided that the banks and the CBN would commit certain percentage of their funds to support this endeavour. “The CBN would continue to provide intervention funds at single digit interest rates as usual.”
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