The African Development Bank (AfDB), says the bank has not disbursed the N111 billion (700 million dollars) loan meant to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The AfDB approved the loan in 2009 and it was supposed to be disbursed through financial institutions, including the Nigeria Export/Import Bank (NEXIM) and the Bank of Industry (BOI) to SMEs.
Dr Ousmane Dore, the Resident Representative of the bank, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja that the money was meant to be disbursed to NEXIM and BOI to support SMEs to create jobs in the country.
Dore attributed the delay in the disbursement of the loan to the fact that agreement between the bank, CBN and the minister of finance was yet to be signed.
He explained that even if the loan agreement was signed, the disbursement would still be delayed until the loan was included in the borrowing plan.
?“So, first the minister has to put the loan in the borrowing plan after that it will go to the National Assembly, then it will be approved again by the Federal Executive Council, then the minister will prepare it for signatory with AfDB.
“In this particularly loan, we took a pragmatic approach. By pragramatic approach, I mean that we don’t have to disburse the loan once but in tranches.’’
Dore said that capacity building and exchange rate risk were other factors that caused the delay, adding that the financial institutions needed to be strengthened with technical assistance by the AfDB.
“These institutions need to have the capacity to monitor loans because the loans are intended for end users like the SMEs.’’
He said that the technical assistant component would enable the institutions to effectively deliver on the expected outcome of the loan.
He said that even when the loan had been approved by the National Assembly, the bank needed to sort out the two major problems before disbursement could be made to the financial institutions.
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