The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has called on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Akwa Ibom. state to avail themselves of its intervention programmes to boost their businesses.
Isaac Okorafor, director of corporate communication stated this during an enlightenment fair organized by the CBN Uyo, the state capital.
Represented by Veronica Aqua, a director in CBN, he charged entrepreneurs in the state to note that, the intervention programme is aimed at powering and supporting Small and Medium Scale businesses.
He stressed that; such would, in turn, improve the Gross Domestic Product [GDP] of the country and thereby improving the living standard of the people.
“The Bank introduced the Anchor Borrowers Programme for certain commodities like rice, wheat, tomatoes, and others, so as to curtail the huge foreign exchange being spent on ford importation; this policy has helped to create employment domestically.
“The Bank initiated the policy of restricting foreign exchange for the importation of 41 products in which the country has comparative advantage in produce of such commodities domestically. These policies have yielded some positive result thereby helping to get the economy out of recession and restoring the economy on the path of growth”, he said.
Participants at the sensitization programme which were drawn from the 31 council areas of the state were also informed of other intervention measures in the areas of manufacturing, SME’s and others, urging them to avail themselves of such services from Commercial Banks in order to benefit from the schemes.
Earlier, the Branch Controller of CBN in Akwa Ibom state, Ogbomon Paul, said the Fair became necessary as it seems most of the intervention initiatives of the bank are not known to the public, promising that, more sensitization programme would be done for entrepreneurs in the state regularly.
“Is like our intervention is not being known, we should once in a while call you for sensitization, but I promise you there is going to be follow up on this”, she said.
