African Growth Financial institution, First Metropolis Monument Financial institution signal deal to bolster entry to finance for small, medium companies

The African Growth Financial institution has signed an settlement with First Metropolis Monument Financial institution (FCMB) for a $50 million line of credit score to assist entry to finance for small and medium-sized and women-empowered enterprises in Nigeria.

FCMB will use the road of credit score to develop lending actions that may increase the nation’s post-pandemic financial restoration and drive extra inclusive and climate-resilient progress. It should give attention to enterprises in Nigeria’s agribusiness, manufacturing, healthcare and renewable power sectors.

The African Growth Financial institution’s Director Normal for Nigeria, Lamin Barrow, mentioned, “The Financial institution’s assist to FCMB will advance the goals of the Affirmative Finance Motion for Girls in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, which seeks to enhance gender inclusivity by enhancing entry to finance for ladies entrepreneurs.  

“With at the least 30 p.c of the funding from the Line of Credit score to be channelled to ladies owned companies, FCMB will likely be higher positioned to scale up the deployment of its tailor-made services and products to satisfy the wants of SMEs and women-owned companies,” Barrow mentioned.  

The African Growth Financial institution can be offering a complementary technical help package deal of $285,000 below its Affirmative Finance Motion for Girls in Africa (AFAWA) initiative. The grant funding, offered by the Girls Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative (We-Fi), will assist enhancing monetary literacy, enterprise administration and entrepreneurial expertise for ladies led companies in addition to strengthening FCMB’s monitoring and reporting capabilities.

FCMB’s Managing Director, Yemisi Edun, mentioned, “We’re glad to collaborate with the African Growth Financial institution to create expanded alternatives and speed up post-COVID-19 pandemic enterprise restoration for SMEs and women-owned companies in Nigeria via funding and technical assist. We’re intentional about collaboration that upskills entrepreneurs, drives industrialisation, and creates financial worth, wealth and employment for Nigerians.”

She mentioned that the settlement affirmed the African Growth Financial institution’s confidence in FCMB’s progress potential and company governance constructions. 

The challenge is predicted to enhance entry to finance for at the least 50 enterprises: 29 within the agribusiness and manufacturing sectors, 9 in renewable power and 13 within the healthcare business. It should create a minimal of 1000 jobs and allow roughly 14 feminine entrepreneurs to realize entry to long-term funding.  

 The African Growth Financial institution anchors its present Nigeria technique on two pillars: supporting infrastructure improvement and selling social inclusion via agribusiness and expertise improvement. Its present Nigeria portfolio includes 53 operations with a complete worth of $4.5 billion. Thirty of those operations, with a worth of $2.7 billion, are sovereign operations; the 23 non-sovereign operations have a worth of $1.8 billion.

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