CBN disburses over N159bn to 330,128 women

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that 330,128 women have been given a sum of N159.21 billion to support their household and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

According to the apex bank, the loans were given under the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) designed to ameliorate those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor stated this while speaking at the ‘Gender Equality Today for a Sustainable Tomorrow’ event in Abuja on Friday.

According to him, the bank has supported women with other intervention funds such as AGSMEIS, MSMEDF and other schemes in addition to issuing gender-mandated regulations to pave way for gender diversity and inclusiveness at the top management levels in the banks.

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Emefiele noted that the apex bank, under his watch, had demonstrated its commitment to diversity and inclusiveness through designing and implementing a wide variety of initiatives, programmes and interventions to promote entrepreneurship, reduce poverty, generate employment and deepen financial inclusion for women.

He said, “Females have benefitted hugely from the bank’s intervention programmes, such as the Agribusiness Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) and the COVID-19 TCF.

“Specifically, out of N134.67 billion disbursed to 37,273 AGSMEIS beneficiaries, as of January 2022, 33% (N44.1 billion) went to 12,511 female beneficiaries. Similarly, out of N349.51 billion disbursed to 712,442 total beneficiaries under the TCF, 45% which was N159.21 billion went to 330,128 female beneficiaries.

“The MSME Development Fund (MSMEDF) was designed to allocate at least 60% of the fund to women and women-owned enterprises of which 60.3% of the 229,579 beneficiaries are women. Furthermore, out of the 211,306 financial statements currently registered in the collateral registry, 92,091, representing 43.6% were female borrowers.”

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