SMEDAN, Azsa Partner To Foster MSMEs

TO further facilitate the access of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to all resources required for their development, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the Azsa Microfinance Bank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a seamless intervention between the provision/acquisition of entrepreneurial training and access to finance.The Director-General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Muhammed Nadada Umar said at the signing of the MOU at the SMEDAN Headquarters in Abuja, that the whole idea of the Agency's partnerships with their relevant bodies was to soften the environment for MSMEs to grow.'The whole idea is to service MSMEs to help them surmount the challenges that confront them from embarking on, or pose as challenges during the course of their businesses,' he said, adding that business is not just about money.He expressed satisfaction about the Agency's ability to collaborate with some State governors in the country, which, according to him, has been bearing fruitful results.The Chairman of Azsa Micro Finance Bank, Alhaji Garba Ibrahim, who was accompanied by the Managing Director of the bank, Dr. (Mrs.) Lizzy Okereke, a staunch member of Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), said that he believed that the MoU would go a long way in enhancing the development of MSMEs as well as helping the impoverished people in Nigeria, especially Lagos where they exist in large numbers.In the MoU, SMEDAN would provide entrepreneurial training and other Business Development Services (BDS) such as mentoring and counseling, link trained MSMEs to Azsa Micro Finance Bank for the provision of funding etc; while Azsa Micro Finance Bank, on its part, would provide credit and/or debt and equity financing facilities to MSMEs that had been trained by SMEDAN and which satisfied the lending criteria of the MFB. The bank is also required to keep a register of MSMEs that have benefited from the MFB's facilities and recommend some of its customers to SMEDAN for training and entrepreneurial skill enhancement programs of the Agency.
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