Akwa Ibom Government and Bank of Industry (BoI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a N5 billion soft loan in the kitty for lending to entrepreneurs and training of small-scale business people in the state.

Akwa Ibom Governor, Chief Godswill O. Akpabio signed the MoU for the State Government while the Managing Director of Bank of Industry, Ms. Evelyn Oputu signed for the bank.

Briefing the press after, the Special Adviser on Industrialisation and Akwa Ibom Industrial and Investment Promotion Council (AKIIPOC), Mr. Senas Ukpanah, said the effort was in line with Governor Akpabio’s electioneering promise to promote industrialisation policy in the state.

Ukpanah hinted that the Federal Government would support the loan scheme with N2.5 billion while the state Government would put N2.5 billion for lending to investors.

Meanwhile, Governor Akpabio has pledged to partner the bank in order to create entrepreneurship and capacity development in the agro-allied sector.

Akpabio, who stated this Wednesday when BoI Managing Director, Ms. Oputu (shown in photo), paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Uyo, further pledged to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the bank.

He again stated that his administration would land for interested investors as well as has budgeted N20 billion soft loan this year to partner the private sector in establishing industries in the state.

Earlier, Ms. Oputu had congratulated the Governor on the provision of quality infrastructure in the state. She lamented that the entrepreneurship programme was at the lowest level, attributing low patronage of industries in the country to lack of infrastructure.

She stated the bank would do a lot of training of small-scale business people and provision of facilities to them, calling for proper utilisation of funds by the prospective beneficiaries.