Banks set up special fund to support creative, ICT sectors

The Bankers Committee has said it is setting aside special funds to provide capacity and support to the creative and the ICT industries.

Though the exact amount of the funds hasn’t been pegged, our correspondent learnt that the initiative will be funded from at least 5 percent of the Agriculture/SME Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) fund.

The AGSMEIS is a special fund that sees the banks’ reserve 5 percent of their profits after tax to fund agriculture and small businesses.

The fund was tipped to reach N90bn by the end of 2018. Briefing journalists at the end of 342nd Bankers Committee meeting held in Abuja yesterday, Mr. Herbert Wigwe, MD/CEO Access Bank, said the intervention would be specially set aside for the music, movies, fashion and ICT sectors.

“The Bankers Committee after a lot research identified the ICT and the creative sectors as critical sectors to support social and inclusive growth in Nigeria. We found out that that sector will generate significant amount of jobs and contribute to GDP growth’’ he said while explaining the reasons for the direct interventions in those areas.

He also said that the funding would be under a reasonable interest rate and structure until they become profitable, adding that hopefully Nigeria should begin to see the impact in the next quarter.

Also commenting, the Director Development Finance, CBN, Dr. Mudashiru Olaitan said with the support, the 37 million MSMEs in Nigeria will be able to support more jobs.

The Bankers Committee is also looking at providing shared power facilities to power the MSMEs for productivity he said adding that already the pilots have commenced in Aba, Kano, Lagos and Ibadan.