Senior Economist and Partner at SPM Professionals Limited, Paul Alaje, has raised concerns about the depreciation of the naira, which has eroded the value of the Federal Government’s N1 million loan to 100,000 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs.
Alaje made this observation while discussing the required funding for MSMEs to stimulate job creation and boost foreign exchange earnings from small-scale exports.
In an interview with THE WHISTLER, Alaje suggested that President Bola Tinubu and his economic team should reconsider their approach of offering loans to just 100,000 MSMEs out of a total of over 40 million in the country.
Tinubu had announced plans to allocate N75 billion to fund start-ups and MSMEs, with 100,000 MSMEs receiving loans ranging from N100,000 to N1 million at a 9% annual interest rate.
This initiative aims to counterbalance the impact of fuel subsidy removal.