The Bank of Industry (BoI) has signed a N48.44 million-credit to 15 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under the Kaduna Startup Entrepreneurship Programme (KADSTED).
KADSTED was proposed by the Kaduna State Government in conjunction with the Kaduna Business School (KBS) and the development finance institution to empower aspiring entrepreneurs to have access to various intervention funds which are available to SMEs in the state.
The acting Managing Director, BoI, Mr. Waheed Olagunju ststed that the loans were approved for applicants who met the bank’s Risk Acceptance Criteria (RAC), adding that the bank and KBS were currently working to help 10 other SMEs meet the RAC in order to benefit from the Reddit facility.
He said the bank was also introducing measures to increase the success rate of KADSTEP graduates with a view to reducing the mortality rate.
“We are optimistic that most of them will eventually scale through and encourage others to complete their applications in good time so that they could also become beneficiaries,” he said.
Under KADSTEP, successful small business operators would also have opportunities to leverage on existing N1 billion matching fund instituted between the bank and the state government. Altogether, 25 startups had participated in a two-month intensive entrepreneurial training programme with one month practical session in business plans development-but only 15 graduates got credit facilities ranging from N2 million to N5 million.
Olagunju further said that the bank would support the economic blueprint recently unveiled by the Kaduna State Government, noting that several of the initiatives contained in the document, if meticulously implemented, were capable of making the state the economic hub of northern Nigeria.
