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LAGOS STATE AND OTHERS URGE CBN TO REDUCE INTEREST RATES
Governor Ambode and others call on CBN to reduce lending rate to five(5) percent.
While speaking at the 9th annual bankers committee retreat held in Lagos, Lagos state Governor Akinwumi Ambode called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to consider reducing the interest rate for the N220 billion Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) intervention loan to 5 percent.
This reduction he said will encourage more off take as the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele had earlier on expressed disappointment as less than half of the N220bn MSME’s fund created in 2013, have been accessed by banks for their customers.
Ambode said there is a need to grow the economy at 7 percent and creating of at least 4 million jobs to carter for he growing population. He urged the CBN to replicate the Employment Trust Fund which his administration had set up in Lagos state through which about N10 billion had been disbursed to the MSMEs at five per cent with over 6,000 benefiting so far.
The Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, in a passing remark over Governor Ambode’s comment, said, “I support the 5 per cent”, while Kebbi State Governor Bagudu Abubakar Atiku hinted that he will push for zero interest rate.
Also at the retreat Mrs Bola Adesola, the Chairman, Sub-Committee on Economic Development, Sustainability and Gender, noted that a sizable chunk of the N220 billion is reserved for women but they can not survive with 9 per cent interest rate. So there is a need to bring the rate down to facilitate draw down.