The Nigeria Export and Import Bank (NEXIM) and Bank of Industry (BOI), the custodians of the $200m which President Jonathan made available to the Nigerian entertainement industry, has said it will soon disburse the funds.
The managing director, NEXIM Bank, Roberts Orya, while speaking at the Lagos Exporters Enlightenment Forum held at? the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, said that plans to disburse the loan under the Nigeria Creative and Entertainment Industry Stimulation loan Scheme (NCEISS),one of NEXIM’s products, are underway.
He said the entertainment industry’s access to the $200m fund has not been easy, because of the viability of the ideas of movie producers, and that there were operating guidelines for any business venture to access the fund.
Orya said, “At the inception, we received numerous applications from movie producers but we discovered that only a few were qualified to receive this loan. So we had to involve the India NEXIM bank to assist us indrawing up a structure, and after consultations with Nollywood, only two producers out of the twenty met our guidelines in accessing this loan, and soon, N3.7bn will be released to four production companies.”