We Have Supported Nigerian MSMEs With $1b- AfDB

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has disclosed that 20,500 micro, small and medium enterprises in Nigeria have benefitted from its interventions to the tune of over $1 billion.

AfDB president, Akinwunmi Adesina, made the disclosure at the African Small and Medium Enterprise Immersion Fund Roundtable organised by Access Bank Plc in Lagos.

He said through the interventions, over 440,000 jobs had been created in Nigeria, with women and youths accounting for 60 per cent.

Adesina who was represented by the director-general of the Nigeria Country Department, AfDB, Lamin Barrow, said the bank had also inaugurated the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa.

“The bank has also launched the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa as a flagship initiative to close the $42 billion access to finance gap for women-led and owned SMEs. Through AFAWA, the bank will facilitate up to $5 billion in credit access to women SMEs by 2026.”

The AfDB president said MSMEs employed about 77 per cent of the workforce in Nigeria — dominated by women who faced greater challenges in accessing affordable finance and non-financial services due to gender biases in property rights limiting their ability to collateralise loans.

He further said the growth of MSMEs had been constrained by many factors, including poor access to affordable finance, perceptions of high default risk due to key man risks, information asymmetries and other challenges related to their informality.