The BakersCommittee, comprising the Central Bank of Nigeria and Deposit Money Bank (DMBs) have resolved to finance the creative, fashion and Information Technology (IT) sectors for economic growth and youth employment.Managing Director of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe, told journalists after deliberations at the Bankers Committee Meeting yesterday, said the creative and ICT sectors have been identified as critical sectors to support social and inclusive growth in Nigeria.He said the banks have found out that basically, these sectors will provide and generate significant number of employment and given how Nigerians in the creative sector have done well in Nollywood, and music among others, it will have significant impact on employment creation as well as GDP and of course Nigeria can be become the heart of tourism if the whole sectors are handled very well. It could also be a source of foreign exchange earning if we invest significantly in these sectors.facility. All the infrastructure to be created will be of world class standard because we are bringing people who have done this else where in the world to partner with our people for knowledge transfer.Naturally, funding would be by way of debt at reasonable interest rate in single digits which is quasi equity if you like he explained.On his part, Dr. Mudasiru Olaitan: Director, Development Finance Department (DFD) of the CBN said in Nigeria today we have almost 37.5 million SMEs and most critical factors that affect their growth apart from finance is power. The Bankers Committee is looking at how to work with Rural electrification authority and the CBN to see how power can be deployed to power service providers and provide power to the SMEs.He added that the process has commenced with pilot programmes at Ariaria market, Sabongeri and Iponri in Lagos. We are looking at how we can deploy about 10,000 mini orbits to the SMEs and is going to further boost our fashion industry and creative industry. If each SME can create about five jobs, multiplied by about 37 million, it is going to be of huge impact on job creation and it will reflect on economy growth.Also speaking at the briefing Mrs. Tomi Somefun, Managing Director of Unity Bank stated that apart from creating jobs and increasing the GDP, this initiative is an avenue for youths empowerment. If you look at the demographic of those who contribute to the sectors that was mentioned, two of them are youths. This will further promote youth empowerment which is a key driver of one of the key goals of the economy.She added that It will also promote knowledge sharing among these groups. When you put all of them together, they can exchange ideas thereby further improve the content. We are passionate about this as Bankers Committee and we think we can do this very very fast.On his part, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, Director Corporate Communications of the CBN explained that in the IT industry we have millions of Nigerian youths who are so creative with information technology and most of them are jobless. The impact of this, if this young people have the opportunity to unleash their creative energy, is that they will be able to start things on their own, they are able to go abroad even attract companies abroad, or work from Nigeria and earn foreign exchange, that is one basic thing that this economy needs.He added that, this will happen with the creation of technology hubs across the country. The fashion, music and movie industry, that trio of industries can really power the Nigeria economy much better than oil. With our music, our fashion and our movies the BankersCommittee are saying with the CBN that you can forget oil if only we can provide these. Banks themselves are making provisions from their profits as part of 5% of their profits to be invested in these areas.
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