BoI Disburses Over N30m To MSME In Osun State

As part of measures to check mate the rising unemployment rate in the country, the Bank of Industry (BoI) has disbursed over N30 million to youths in Osun State.
The funds were disbursed under BoI’s partnership with Oduduwa foundation to support and empower youths with viable business plans in driving economic development.
It was gathered that 20 beneficiaries of the first phase of the N1 billion Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) development fund between BoI and the house of Oduduwa, had undergone capacity programmes on services and value addition mainly in the agro-processing sector within the last six Months.

The essence is to enable the beneficiaries to put the funds to judicious and effective use while also adding value to the nation’s natural resource endowments.
The acting Managing Director, BoI, Waheed Olagunju, the initiative is a continuous process to achieve youth emancipation, pointing out that the bank is in collaboration with the enterprise development centre of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) to build capacities of youth in the State.
“Their repayment plan varies and depends on their cash flow, but typically, our facility ranges between 3 to 5 years and at a single digit of seven per cent. We do not only look at the financial viability of projects, but also the developmental impact, potential multiplier effect and the strategic importance of such projects.
“In this particular case, job creation is the most important consideration because the multiplier effect per unit of investment in MSMEs is much higher than any other sizes of business. Jobs are created vertically and horizontally and the multiplier effects are quite enormous,” Olagunju said.
Continuing, Olagunju said “These are the beneficiaries for the first phase of the N1 billion Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) development fund headed by the Ooni himself; so they have been substantially de-risked”.