By Munachimso Obienyi
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) says it will channel $150 million funding to SMEs through Financial institutions (FIs) across Africa to enhance financial inclusion while also addressing barriers to SME funding.
This is even as the bank commended Access Bank Plc’s support in providing funding, risk sharing and non-financial services to MSMEs through the proposed $1 billion SME Immersion Fund for Africa.
The President, AfDB, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, stated this during the African SME Immersion Roundtable Discussion organised by Access Bank Plc in Lagos.
While delivering a lecture on the theme of the event; Enhancing the Capabilities of MSMEs Across Africa, Dr Adesina, who was represented by the Director General, Nigeria Country Office, Lamin Barrow, said;
“The bank have prioritized support to MSMEs in its interventions across the high 5 strategic priorities while adding that its lines of credit interventions are increasingly being more targeted to support the development of regional value chains and clusters, with strong linkages to MSMEs through off-taker and other support to de-risk the ecosystem”
He noted that the bank’s interventions have supported over 20,500 MSMES and have contributed to the creation of over 440,000 jobs, with women and the youth accounting for 60 per cent.
“The Bank has also launched the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) as a flagship initiative to close the $42 billion access to finance gap for women led and owned SMSEs. Through AFAWA, the Bank will facilitate up to $5 billion in credit access to women SMEs by 2026”
“To date, over $800 million in investments have been approved for on-lending to 3,000 women SMEs in 23 African countries, including Nigeria. Our Africa SME Program will channel $150 million funding to SMEs through FIs across Africa to enhance financial inclusion while also addressing barriers to SME funding. Through a Technical Assistance component, this program will strengthen the beneficiary FIs’ ability to serve SMEs”, he revealed.
