Osinbajo says government plans launching Entrepreneur Bank to provide loans to small businesses

NIGERIA's federal government plans to launch an Entrepreneur Bank to provide low-interest rate loans to businessmen and artisans as part of its economic masterplan aimed at diversifying the economy and ending the dependence on crude oil.

Eager to end the government's dependence on crude oil earnings, which account for over 90% of its revenue, ministers are looking to expand the private sector by advancing loans to small businesses. Vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who has championed these plans said that the Entrepreneur Bank will provide flexibility in the provision of financial facilities to businesses.

Speaking while fielding questions from a cross-section of women traders at a programme tagged Next Level Conversation in Abuja, Professor Osinbajo said that the issue of giving cheap loans to small businesses had featured prominently in the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Most of the women in the audience he addressed were entrepreneurs drawn from the education, environment, agriculture, real estate and hospitality sectors.

Professor Osinbajo said:  “We have been able to deal to some extent with small and micro businesses, as we have TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni, which are basically very small credit schemes. We are also looking at an Enterprise Bank or an Entrepreneur Bank which is one of the types of establishment we are looking at.

“We think there is a need for a bank that will be a bit more nimble about entrepreneurship, a bank that has a bit more flexibility. Of course, we will need a bill in the National Assembly but in the meantime, we think we can start with a bond to put a lot around it without necessarily building another big bureaucracy."

He added that there was need to properly finance education as efforts were being made to get the Tertiary Education Trust Fund to also bankroll the private sector. Professor Osinbajo reiterated that the issue of funding education lay with the federal, state and local governments.

In addition, the vice president added that the federal government would collaborate with state and local governments to curb multiple taxation, which had adverse effect on businesses. Over recent weeks, Professor Osinbajo has been handing out sums of N10,000 to small businesses across Nigeria under the TraderMoni and MarketMoni programmes.