Nigeria: FG plans to establish entrepreneur bank

The Federal Government has announced plans to establish an Entrepreneur Bank to provide flexibility in provision of facilities to businesses.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo disclosed this while fielding questions from a cross-section of women enterpreneurs at a programme tagged `Next Level Conversation’ recently in Abuja.

The women, who were mostly entrepreneurs, were drawn from the education, environment, agriculture, real estate, hospitality among other sectors.

The vice president said that the issue of giving cheap loans to small businesses had featured prominently in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

“We have been able to deal to some extent with small and micro businesses; we have TraderMoni, MarketMoni, FarmerMoni; which are basically very small credit schemes.

“We are also looking at an Enterprise Bank or an Entrepreneur Bank which is one of the types of establishment we are looking at.

“We think there is a need for a bank that will be a bit more nimble about entrepreneurship; a bank that has a bit more flexibility.

“That is why we are talking about Entrepreneur Bank; of course, we will need a bill in the National Assembly. In the meantime, we think we can start with a bond to put a lot around it without necessarily building another big bureaucracy,’’ he said.