NEXIM Earmarks N36bn For SMEs’ Export Business In 36 States

The Nigerian Export-Import Bank has said it has earmarked a minimum of N1bn for every state of the federation to be disbursed to targeted export-oriented projects in the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises sector.

The bank said this fund would help crowdfunding investments and promote regional industralisation and economic development.

Managing Director and Chief Executive of NEXIM, Mr Abba Bello, disclosed this on Tuesday in Akure, Ondo State.

The bank along its continental counterpart, African Export-Import Bank, also announced that it had earmarked the $10m as project preparation fund for supporting pre-operational phase of project cycles.

According to Bello, this fund will help to increase the pipeline of bankable projects, towards addressing the problem of poor access to funds particularly amongst SMEs.

He added that the fund was expected to help states benefit from the opportunities provided by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

He said, “As you may all be aware, the AfCFTA, which commenced in January 2021, comes with enormous benefits, including a borderless market of about 1.2 billion people, with a combined GDP of about $3.4tn.

It therefore offers our SMEs, particularly those engaged in cross-border trade, the opportunity to increase their sales under a more liberal market condition.

“This scheme also seeks to corporatise and on-board our informal exporters into the formal sector, and through this capture the huge volume of informal trade which has been estimated at about four times the value of recorded trade.”

He added that as the nation’s Export Development Bank, NEXIM was in the vanguard of promoting economic diversification towards increased jobs creation and foreign exchange earnings for the country.