Members of business community in Ilorin, Kwara State have cried out over what they described as stringent conditions towards accessing micro-finance loans in the state.Speaking at an interactive session with key state government departments in Ilorin recently, members of the Coalition of Business and Professional Associations (KWACOBPA) said they had found the loan conditions difficult to meet. 'They ask for two guarantors that must be civil servants on level 15 and above. But the civil servants are not always willing to serve as guarantors. The money is not even enough to use for investment', a member of the association, Alhaji Agboola Alege, of the ultra modern market, Ilorin, said.Other members of the association who spoke, condemned the increasing large number of okada operators in the state, saying okada business had taken many youth out of professional vocations.'You can't get people to work for you again. Many people have abandoned their vacations to embrace okada business. The rate at which okada riders entice our young girls with money is alarming and this has increased the rate of teenage pregnancy. We want government to be more serious on skill acquisition for the teeming youth in the state', Alhaji Kamil Akanbi said.Also speaking, the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Mr Lukman Adams, said the micro-credit loan scheme was not meant for those in big business, saying it was for loan in the range of N20,000 and N50,000, urging them to form cooperative societies to benefit.He said the so called stringent conditions were meant to discourage the loan from getting lost, adding that N220 milllion out of the N250 million meant for disbursement had been released.The governor's aide also said that the government was aware of the need to have masterplan for Kwara State so that expansion of business enterprise can be effectively controlled, adding that the plan was contained in the 2012 budget.Mr Adams, who supported the existence of okada operators in the state, said that the business cannot be banned, describing it as the key unit of transportation sector in the state. He told the business community to always come forward to meet with government officials to seek clarification and advice on government programmes and policies.
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