NCDMB, NEXIM Raise $40m Fund For Women In Oil Sector

Qualified women entrepreneurs in the Nigerian oil and gas industry can now benefit from the $40m Women in Oil and Gas Intervention Fund deployed by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board and Nigerian Export-Import Bank.

The NCDMB is contributing $20m to the pool and it will be matched by the same amount in naira by NEXIM, to be converted at prevailing official exchange rate, according to a statement issued by NCMDB.

The Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr Simbi Wabote, and the Managing Director of NEXIM Bank, Mr Abubakar Bello, signed the memorandum of understanding on the administration of the fund on Tuesday in Yenagoa.

The target beneficiaries are firms where women hold majority shareholding of 51 per cent or where at least 50 per cent of management are women or where the Chief Executive Officers and at least 40 per cent of management are women.

Wabote said the roll-out of the fund would start on July 1, 2021, adding that the scheme would be availed to both startups and existing companies.

He said the scheme would cover manufacturing, oil service contracts, environment management, leasing, logistics, catering and training.

According to him, the maximum amount that can be borrowed by a single obligor is $500,000 or its naira equivalent at the official exchange rate prevailing at the time of borrowing.

He added that the tenor would be up to five years and the applicable interest rate would be five per cent per annum, fixed throughout the tenor of the loan.

The Managing Director of Nigerian Export-Import Bank, Mr Abubakar Bello, said the partnership with NCDMB fit into the bank’s framework for supporting inclusion as well as its strategy to grow the service industry in Nigeria and take it to the point of export to the West African region and other oil and gas economies.