By Omodele Adigun
In order to keep the economy afloat in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) have so far expended over N5.4 trillion between 2020 and 2021 just as Bank of Industry (BoI) has N599 billion loans in its vault ready for disbursement, investigation has shown.
Put together, if BoI finally disburses the loans to its beneficiaries, the three development financial institutions will have spent N6.030,410 trillion within one year just to contain the global pandemic.
Giving insight into the apex bank’s interventions, its Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed recently that “mobilisation of key stakeholders in the Nigerian economy, through the CACOVID alliance, led to the provision of over N23 billion in relief materials to affected households; loans granted to the private sector rose by N3 trillion between July 2020 and July 2021; deployment of over N756 billion to 3.7 million farmers cultivating over 4.6million hectares of farmland under the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP); deployment of N440 billion to 711,706 beneficiaries under the Agribusiness/Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) and the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) being run by the NIRSAL Microfinance Bank; disbursement of N98.41 billion in loans to support 103 healthcare projects, of which 26 are pharmaceutical companies and 77 are for healthcare institutions and the provision of N923 billion in loans to support 251 real sector projects.”
As for Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), its intervention in 2020 alone stood at N191.9 billion via disbursement to MSMEs in 2020.
The Managing Director/ CEO of BoI, Mr Olukayode Pitan, explained the bank sought partnerships with the Federal Government to manage programmes that would alleviate its negative effects. Some of these programmes included the N75billion MSME Survival Fund: