From Uche Usim, Abuja

The microfinance bank arm of the Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL MFB), said about 881,081 Nigerians and businesses have secured loans valued at over N503 billion from its lending scheme.

The firm has also clinched several awards from over 23 bodies and establishments, for its efforts in resuscitating the Nigerian economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic; through the provision of liquidity for seriously impacted households and businesses.

NIRSAL MFB in a statement noted that most of the loans were from the COVID-19 intervention fund released by the Federal Government to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on households and small businesses.

Data from NIRSAL MFB shows that the bank has disbursed N503,273,000,000 as loans to 1,053,215 beneficiaries. Some of the beneficiaries include individuals and families whose breadwinners lost their jobs in 2020 as a result of the  COVID-19 pandemic.

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These include 612,321 households that received loans ranging from N250,000 to N1 million totalling N240,083,000,000; 103,185 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) between 2020 and December 2021 received loans valued at N104,023,000,000.

Households that are Non-Interest Beneficiaries (NIB) of the NIRSAL MFB loans numbering 21,027 have so far secured facilities amounting to N9,091,000,000. Small and Medium Enterprises under the Non-Interest scheme (NIB SME) numbering 2,710 have accessed N1,057,000,000, while 31,067 Agric Small Medium Enterprises Scheme (AGSMEIS) beneficiaries have accessed N116,001,000,000 from NIRSAL MFB in one year.

Also about 105,244 Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) successful applicants have received loans amounting to N31,001,000,000 while 5,527 Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) have also drawn down N1,009,000,000 loans.

Awards bagged by NIRSAL MFB’s include   Public Service Bank of the Year 2021 Award to NIRSAL MFB from the National Public Service Awards and Summits and The Most Innovative Fintech Brand from African Award 2020 from African Brand.