Akwa Ibom begins disbursement of N1.74 billion microcredit loan to SMEs

The Akwa Ibom government has begun the disbursement of N1.74 billion microcredit loan to Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) as part of deliberate efforts to stimulate economic growth and boost poverty reduction activities across the state.

This is the second phase of the loan scheme after more than N260 million was disbursed during the first phase.

Akan Okon, commissioner for finance who made this known in an interview said more than 4000 small business operators drawn from the 31 local government areas of the state were expected to benefit from the scheme.

Okon said the disbursement was being done through Micro Finance Banks (MFBs)  adding that while the beneficiaries would pay the principal, the state government has undertaken to pay the interest accruing from the loan on behalf of the beneficiaries.

“Last week, we commenced the second phase of the disbursement of funds for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), the programme is ongoing because this sector of the economy is a major catalyst for economic development.

“Market women, traders and artisans are the beneficiaries. The state government has been magnanimous to pay the interest on the loan while the beneficiaries would only pay the principal,’’ he said.

According to him, the amount to be disbursed to each beneficiary will depend on the capacity and turnover of the business maintaining that it is a not grant but a loan which must be repaid.

The commissioner expressed delight that beneficiaries under the first phase of the scheme in which N260 million was disbursed have already started paying back the loan saying that ‘’a significant number have paid already back the loan’’ noting that by so doing, thousands of others would be able to  part of the loan scheme.

“You know that at that level, funding is a major problem for expanding your business that is why government has attached much importance because if they have funds available, they will be able to grow their businesses and this will in turn lead  to the growth of state economy,’’ he said.

He lauded Governor Udom Emmanuel for bringing his wealth of experience in the banking industry to bear on the management of resources of the state adding that all leakages and loopholes associated with revenue collection have been now blocked with the introduction of e-payment platform in the state.

The commissioner announced that a lot of improvement was being expected in the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state government following the introduction of the e-payment platform adding that with the scarce resources available to the state government, “whatever is due to the government is now brought into government purse for the development purposes,’’ he said.

“Before now, what we had in place for payment of government revenue was manual receipts and you know the problems associated with such systems, leakages and wastages etc. The introduction of the e-receipt facility is one of the initiatives of state government to ensure that the leakages are blocked,’’ he said.

ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK