A former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in the last election, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has urged the Federal Government to float a N1 trillion venture capital fund under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement for Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs).
He said this would urgently address the spiralling rise in unemployment in the country.
Moghalu, in a chat in Lagos, explained that the current administration under President Muhammadu Buhari must find a lasting solution to the stifling credit to local SMEs in the country, which is severely taking a toll on their bottom line and profits.
According to him, it is time the Federal Government created a N1 trillion venture capital funding to enable SMEs get access to capital to boost their businesses, adding that paucity of fund was killing SMEs businesses in Nigeria.
He also noted that high interest rate from Nigerian banks was preventing SMEs from approaching them to borrow money to improve their businesses.
The former CBN chieftain admitted that availability of fund and access to credit to SMEs would help tackle rising unemployment.
He noted that the N1trillion venture capital fund was the catalyst to fully enable the SMEs realise their objectives as the bedrock of Nigerian economy.
According to him, the scheme is obtainable in many advanced countries of the world, including the United States, South Africa, United Kingdom and Asia giants, adding that Nigeria cannot be an exception to this since this scheme has been a success story in other economies of the world.
“We need to create a N1 trillion venture capital fund. It will be a Public Private Partnership. It is going to be more useful than the Social Intervention Programme (SIP) of the present administration. The reason for the intention of the SIP is to empower traders with money, it is not sustainable and we all know that. They are recycling poverty.
“What will need is to create wealth for SMEs in this country. And how you create wealth, you create access to finance for SMEs, for young people who are jobless; you have to create access to capital for them.