For the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) players in the South-South and South-East regions of Nigeria who are slowed down by cash drought in their export businesses, there is a huge credit facility for them to harvest from.
The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) is inviting export-oriented SMEs in the South-East and Niger Delta States to access the N500 billion Export Stimulation Facility (ESF) and the N50 billion Export Development Fund to boost their businesses, create jobs and contribute to the foreign exchange revenue earnings of the country.
Abba Bello, NEXIM Managing Director/CEO, made the call, at a one-day seminar on “Leveraging NEXIM Bank Facilities to Unleash Export Potential”, organised by the bank and SME Centre in Enugu.
Chinedu Moghalu, Head of the bank’s Enugu Regional Office, who represented Bello, said the funds are made available to NEXIM by CBN at a time the bank had decentralized its operations to all the regions of the country for easier accessibility of its products and services to maximum impact.
Bello said ”NEXIM Bank is determined to ensure these funds achieve the desired impact of triggering non-oil export development, growth and economic progress in line with its mandate as the Trade Policy Bank of the Federal Government and the applicable CBN guidelines for the implementation of the facilities.
”The overall aim of the ESF and EDF is to lower the costs of Nigerian exporters so that their products can be priced at a level where they can compete with other products around the world,”the managing director explained.
He then urged eligible export-oriented companies in the Eastern and Delta states with permissible transactions under the schemes to participate in the funding scheme by submitting proposals for consideration through the financial institutions of their choice or directly to NEXIM Bank.
These facilities were made available to NEXIM Bank last December by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for lending at a maximum of nine percent interest rate. The funds were designed to redress the declining export credit to SMEs and reposition the non-oil sector to increase its contribution to the country’s revenue generation and economic development.
The improved export financing for non-oil exporters is to enable them to upscale and expand their businesses and improve their competiveness.