Bankers Committee plans to boost creative industry financing

The Creative Industry in Nigeria has received the attention of the Bankers’ Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), for the commencement of disbursement of funds to the sector under its Creative Industry Financing Initiative, in which beneficiaries could get up to N500million as loan.

This was disclosed yesterday, at the end of the Committee’s meeting held at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, which had in attendance, chief executives of all the Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria, as well as other top officials of the apex bank.

Addressing journalists shortly after the meeting, the Director, Banking Supervision Department, CBN, Mr Ahmed Abdullahi, said the decision to support the creative industry was borne out of the Committee’s conviction that the sector held the key to job creation, poverty reduction, and inclusive growth.

He was accompanied to the briefing by the CEOs of FBN Merchant Bank, Kayode Akinkugbe; Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan; FSDH Merchant Bank, Hamda Ambah; Citibank, Akin Dawodu; and CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Isaac Okoroafor.

Other issues discussed at the meeting included consumer lending, mortgage financing, and the need to encourage the culture of savings among Nigerians.

Providing more insight into the outcome of the meeting, Akinkugbe urged interested applicants in the creative industry to submit applications to their banks for approval and disbursement.

He also urged them to prepare the business plan or statement on how much they require for their businesses.
On real estate, he said the Committee has decided to unlock the huge liquidity that various people have in the sector, to enable banks to boost their contribution to the sector towards adding value to their consumers.

He said: “We have had good dialogue in the past and there is recognition in the Bankers’ Committee that it is time to execute a lot of the initiatives that have been considered by the various sub-committees and acted on immediately.

“Another initiative discussed is in the real sector, we want to release the trapped liquidity that various investments that people have in the real estate in land or in property. Recognizing that there are some obstacles but ultimately we must find a way to navigate through.”