The Bank of Industry (BOI) has released N3 billion to Jaiz Bank Plc for development and expansion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.

The N3 billion is to be spread among small entrepreneurs round the country, and to empower small business operators to grow their businesses.

The Executive Director, BOI, Mr. Shekarau Omar, assured that the bank was ready to partner with institution that were ready to support and develop areas that needed support.

According to Omar, the N3 billion will help Nigeria businesses grow, execute a lot and even come for more if need be.

BOI is already in partnership with 16 different financial institutions and so far has disbursed N3.8 billion to these institutions.

“With this N3 billion disbursed to Jaiz Bank, and other disbursement done, it has risen to N6 billion, we hope to disburse another N5.3billion to them between now and end of this quarter.

“Soon, BOI disbursement portfolio is expected to move from N6.8billion to about N12 billion at the end of the day”

He stated that the whole idea is how best BOI serves those that require this kind of financial services that are unable to get it as easy as they are suppose to get.

“The small scale businesses are the ones that boost the economy, they are the ones that will help the system but unfortunately, they have no means of getting funds and therefore, what we do is that we now work for financial institutions that will help the rich which is not suppose to be.

He stated that the meeting with Jaiz Bank was a confirmation of what BOI was used to because, it considered which financial institution that were ready to help without thinking of how much interest it was looking at.

He encouraged Jaiz Bank to come forward for another tranche of disbursement soon as it succeeded in properly managing the N3 billion.

The Managing Director, Jaiz Bank, Mr. Hassan Usman, assured BOI that the fund would be disbursed to targeted beneficiaries and noted that the fundamental reason for the creation of Jaiz Bank was to create wealth through the MSMEs.

He said pilot programmes were already going on with financial inclusion drive.

“We are also going to use agency banking to reach those in the rural areas where we cannot be physically present. Women are one of our major priorities which we have decided to provide financing for.’’ (NAN)