Governor of the apex bank, Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday at the 7th Annual Bankers’ Committee Retreat in Lagos said that the CBN will not release funds to banks following the reduction of the Cash Reserve Ratio if they do not lend to SMEs.
Emefiele said banks were not active lenders to SME operators in the country and that the country was entering a phase where SMEs would be important for the nation’s growth. He said operators in the banking industry must change and start supporting the SME sector.
In his words, “we need to begin to agitate our minds and consider how we can support the young minds. Let’s give them a chance.
The details of SME programme is going to be separate from the N220 billion.
I am saying if you refuse to support, your money that we would have released through the CRR, we will take that money and lend it through any channel that will give these young graduates jobs.
We all need to think together and agree because there is no need to release the money to you and all you do with the money is buy treasury bills.
It can’t continue. We need to agitate our minds; we need to think about the best ways to diversify this economy away from oil.
“We need to get more and more people to be employed and we would need the support of the banks to begin to see how we lower our risk acceptance criteria to give support to our young graduates.”
The Governor said the scheme would be different from the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund launched in 2013.