Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga has urged banks to support micro, small and medium enterprises in the country so as to stimulate economic growth.
Aganga said this while speaking as a guest on the Fidelity Bank SME radio programme yesterday. He said “I encourage banks to support SMEs. It is not about buying treasury bills and bonds and making 10 per cent, you must be relevant to the Nigerian economy.
“You must play your role in terms of supporting the growth of the Nigerian economy, you must play your role in terms of job creation.
“That is the way that other countries are growing and our banks must do the same. Fidelity Bank has taken this to a different level.”
He commended the efforts of President Goodluck Jonathan towards growth of MSMEs in the country.
He said “For the first time in the history of this country, we have a government led by President Goodluck Jonathan that is taking MSME as one of the most important sectors of this economy.
“For the first time in history, we are treating this area as a sector. We have a new programme called the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDP) which aims to remove all the barriers and work on what would enable businesses to grow.
“For the time in this country, we have raised it to the highest level. We have an MSME National Council that is chaired by the vice president and has state governors, ministers and agencies on that council.”
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