SMEDAN grants 3-month moratorium to borrowers

Beneficiaries of the One Local Government One Product (OLOP) credit scheme of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) are to enjoy a three-month moratorium on their facilities beginning from this month.

According to the Director General/ Chief Executive Officer of SMEDAN, Dikko Radda, the resolution became necessary considering the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the relief measures announced by the presidency for micro enterprises in Nigeria.

“Let me use this opportunity to implore relevant participating microfinance banks to ensure strict compliance,” Mr Radda said.

OLOP is a replica of the popular One Village One Product (OVOP) Movement that birthed in the Oita Prefecture of Japan in 1979.

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A regional economic development model, it seeks to rally local people to transform naturally accessible resources such as raw materials and skills of rural areas into value-added economic activities/products or services.

OLOP adopts bottom-to-top transformative strategies with government’s intervention being facilitation alone.

The ultimate value addition is attained by utilising state-of-the art manufacturing technologies, quality control via appropriate qualifications or licences as well as branding for both the domestic and international markets.

“SMEDAN vision is to cover the 774 local government areas of the country under its OLOP programme, so far, the agency has covered 218 local governments areas with the support of the federal government,” a statement from the agency states.

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