The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, yesterday, informed that the criteria currently being used for the disbursement of the N500 billion development fund across the six geo–political zones, will be reviewed.
She said this when she appeared before the Senate ad-hoc committee set up to investigate alleged uneven disbursement of the N500 billion Federal Government loans already given out to Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs).
The Senate, following a motion by Ali Ndume, set up an ad-hoc panel chaired by Sani Musa to investigate the matter.
Ndume had alleged that the South-West geopolitical zone, especially Lagos State, had the largest number of the loans beneficiaries.
The chief executive officers of the affected banks, including the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), and the Bank of Industry (BOI), among others had told the panel that they adhered strictly to the criteria set up by their regulators and not geopolitical considerations in given out loans, which made the committee to summon the Minister.
I have been given copies of reports already submitted to the committee by the development banks and promised to look into the criteria of accessing funds from the development banks with a view to making adjustments where possible.
In her submission before the panel, the Minister pledged to meet with the development banks management and their regulators, the Central Bank of Nigeria, to carry out the review of the criteria for loan disbursement.
She however, cautioned that such review would not be too flexible to ensure the sustainability of the development banks.
“I have been given copies of reports already submitted to the committee by the development banks and promised to look into the criteria of accessing funds from the development banks with a view to making adjustments where possible,” she said.
Earlier in his remarks, Musa said the Federal Government supported the development banks so that they would not use the same considerations that commercial banks are using.
“We want to know the conditionality that is making it very difficult for the MSMEs to access funds from the development banks; there is the need to look at it critically.
“We want to know the criteria being used by the development banks to disburse funds because we know that the standards were set by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“The criteria should be such that the weak MSMEs would be able to access it.
“The Bank of Industry for instance, was set up to industrialise Nigeria. It means every part of the country must be considered.
“The Nigerian economy is being run by the MSMEs because we have about 39 million of them across the country. We need to ensure their survival,” he said.
