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The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) has said that a quick passage of the Nigerian Factory Bill will promote and aid the growth of Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The bank made the disclosure at a meeting with the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and other Financial Institutions in Abuja, recently.
Addressing the committee, the Managing Director, NEXIM Bank, Abba Bello, said that the ‘Factory Bill’, if passed into law, would significantly create a lot of Job opportunities in the country. Bello said that the bank would be partnering with Factory Chain International (FCI), Intra-African Trade Initiatives and African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), “to do the needful for effective service delivery”.
“Over the past four years, the Nigerian Export-Import Bank has been working toward developing factoring as a trade finance instrument designed to promote Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) development.
“It also serves as a strategic tool toward financial inclusion in trade services. This has become necessary in view of current challenges to access to finance and the progressive decline in export credits to support exporters, particularly MSMEs,” Bello said.
Lending credence to Bello’s view, Manager, Legal Services of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Enga Kameni, in his remarks, said that factoring was considered a key instrument for supporting SMEs, especially those that do not qualify for traditional bank lending. Kameni said that SMEs accounted for 40 per cent of employment and 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in low income countries. According to him, SMEs play a key role in intra-regional trade and industrialisation.
Earlier, Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Uba Sani, had commended the bank for the move, saying that the proposed bill, if passed into law, would serve as an essential component in international trade and in the promotion of export and import activities in country.
His words: “The bill will enhance the contributions of SMEs to non-oil export trade, particularly within the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area. It will also help to support the diversification objectives of the Federal Government under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.”
