Haj. Habiba Balarebe-Suleiman, Director-General (DG), Nasarawa State Human Capital Development Agency (NSHCDA) says four entrepreneurs have so far benefited from Nasarawa State Government N500 million revolving loan.
The DG who made the disclosure at a press conference on Friday in Lafia, said the revolving loan is real and urged the public to disregard any insinuation to the contrary.
According to her, the interaction was aimed at updating the public on the initiative by the government in collaboration with the Bank of Industry (BOI) geared towards empowering the youths with the funds needed to set up their businesses and be self reliant.
She explained that new business owners as well as owners of existing businesses have applied through the agency’s portal and submitted business proposals to enable them benefit from the soft loan.
“We received 89 applications for batch A, but many of the proposals failed to meet up with condition of registration of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
“After thorough screening, only four proposals meet the condition of the scheme and were given between N1-N3 million to support their businesses.
“I can tell you that the businesses that received the support are already doing well and the owners have employees working under them,” the DG added.
She added that under the agreement, the state government provided N250 million and the Bank of Industry provided same amount and the money is being managed by the bank.
She further explained that the application is done online and the selection process for beneficiaries is transparent devoid of religion, tribal or political sentiment.
Balarebe-Suleiman therefore encouraged entrepreneurs to apply and benefit from the laudable initiative aimed at reducing poverty and engaging the youths in order to make them unavailable for crimes.
On his part, Abdullahi Alhaji, Nasarawa State Manager of Bank of Industry said the bank and the state government had entered into matching fund agreement where each provided N250 million to empower the youths of the state.
He explained that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between them was signed on October 27, 2022 after the state government remitted their counterpart contribution of N250 million.
He added that when a proposal is endorsed by the agency, a panel examines and screen the applicants and forward the list of successful entrepreneurs to the bank for further scrutiny and possible payment.
He also said that the bank had set machinery on ground to ensure that only qualify applicants benefits in line with due process.
“We have also perfected modalities to recover the loan given out to enable many other owners of businesses benefit from the loan,” he added. (NAN).