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NERFUND, NDE partner on recovery of N17b MSMEs’ loans

By Femi Adekoya
26 September 2016   |   2:42 am
The acting NERFUND CEO, during a meeting with NDE boss, Olakunle Obayan, said NERFUND has already operationalised an effective debt recovery template, complete with a Taskforce whose efforts have started yielding encouraging outcomes.
Dr. Ezekiel Oseni, NERFUND , Managing Director

Dr. Ezekiel Oseni, NERFUND , Managing Director

The acting Managing Director of National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), Dr. Ezekiel Oseni, has sought the collaboration of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to aid its ongoing recovery effort of about N17billion owed the Fund by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises MSMEs.

The acting NERFUND CEO, during a meeting with NDE boss, Olakunle Obayan, said NERFUND has already operationalised an effective debt recovery template, complete with a Taskforce whose efforts have started yielding encouraging outcomes.

“NERFUND is passing through difficult times and I have been sent to stabilise it,” Oseni said.

He said part of NERFUND mandate is job creation, but its current operational objective ‘is to see how NDE can help us to recover loans made to enterprises you introduced’.

NDE is one of the NERFUND Partner Institutions (NPI), composed of mostly public sector capacity building agencies that signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) to broker NERFUND loans for the beneficiaries of their training programmes.

At a meeting in Abuja, the Acting DG of NDE pledged total support of his agency to see the Fund out of the troubled waters, saying that the only way other eligible entrepreneurs can benefit from NERFUND’s credit facility is when existing borrowers paid up.

He enthused that, “there is opportunity for further collaboration after this time”.

Indeed, the two agencies have also established a joint committee to reconcile the figures and recommend the most effective option for the successful recovery of the debts.

Other leading agencies of the Federal Government that entered MoU to broker NERFUND loans include National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI), Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and Enterprise Development Centres (EDCs), under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

A total of 420 micro enterprises valued at N711.48million were funded through the NPIs. They account for N1.14b of total NERFUND debt portfolio.

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