It will be stating the obvious to say that the Bank of Industry Limited, (BOI), has contributed enormously to the development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMSEs) in Nigeria. The most recent in its effort to ensure that small businesses play their part in national development as the engine room of economic and industrial growth, is the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund. In this funding programme, the bank has set aside N2 billion in the first year to encourage young Nigerian graduates of tertiary institutions who are currently serving under the National Youth Service Corps (nysc) programme to start up new businesses as well as expand existing ones.
It will support the establishment and or expansion of an estimated 1,000 enterprises promoted by NYSC members across the country. The scheme is expected to create a minimum of 5,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect jobs annually, totalling 30,000 jobs. Before this laudable Fund was put in place, there was also the Federal Government Special Intervention fund for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). With a programme limit of N5 billion, it is an initiative to provide subsidised loans to SMEs at single digit, all inclusive interest rate.
 

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