Shettima Applauds Access Bank’s Initiative To Support 700,000 MSMEs

Vice President Kashim Shettima has commended Access Bank for offering N30 billion discounted loans to 700,000 Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in support of the Tinubu administration’s agenda for job creation and the growth of the MSME space.

Sen. Shettima who disclosed this at a meeting with MSME stakeholders comprising key actors from the public and private sectors, at the Presidential Villa at the weekend added that the Access Bank loan scheme would commence as soon as possible.

“Every challenge, every problem is pregnant with opportunities for value addition and for repositioning of the society. I just met with the management of Access Bank, we had extensive discussions and they have offered to provide a N30 billion support to MSMEs focusing mostly on the youth and women as target beneficiaries. They are going to give these loans at 15% interest rate,” he said in a statement by his spokesman, Stanley Nkwocha.

The vice president had earlier met with a delegation from Access Bank led by its managing director/chief executive officer, Mr Roosevelt Ogbonna.

Shettima acknowledged that though the challenges were daunting, Nigeria has the talents to overcome some of them, stressing;

“In this room are the people that can bring about the changes we seek, be it in the agricultural value chain, the digital value chain and the manufacturing value chain.”

He urged the stakeholders to unite in order to overcome the common challenges confronting the country, noting that Nigeria is blessed with the human resources to address the projected global talent deficit.

Earlier, the Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Mr Charles Odii, on behalf of the stakeholders, thanked the Vice President for his leadership and zeal to ensure the transformation of the MSME space in Nigeria.

According to him, the stakeholders were keenly following the activities as well as interest shown by the VP in issues confronting MSMEs, and gave assurances that the stakeholders were “ready, willing, and committed to aligning to the vision of the Tinubu administration in the sector.”