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Bank of Industry offers N380bn syndicated loan to support MSMEs — plans to save 1.3m jobs

Tunde Ayodele      |     

Bank of Industry (BoI) has concluded a N380billion ($1billion) syndicated term loan in conjunction with international partners to further support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

The loan will be given to beneficiaries under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment towards economic recovery and sustainable growth.

It was learnt that the general MSME grant which will provide 100,000 MSMEs with one-off grants of N50,000 each and the Guaranteed Offtake Scheme, would engage approximately 100,000 businesses across the country to produce items typically manufactured in their locality, targeting 300,000 beneficiaries.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, said  that the loan was to improve the capacity of the bank to effectively support Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) across key sectors of the Nigerian economy  with affordable loans of medium to long-term tenor, alongside moratorium benefits.

The Minister said that survival fund was estimated to save at least 1.3 million jobs across the country, saying that the successful implementation of the scheme so far had contributed immensely to quickly pulling Nigeria out of the Covid-19 induced recession.

Also, he explained in Abuja that there was an ongoing discussion with Dunn & Bradstreet to establish an SME risk rating agency -the SME Rating Agency of Nigeria (SMERAN), to provide an empirical basis towards analysing the eligibility of SMEs to access credit.

Adebayo noted that the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) had launched the Export Expansion Facility (EEF) under the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP) to support the resilience of new and existing MSMEs to respond to the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic to retain and create more jobs, especially youth and women businesses through the Youth Export Development Programme (YEDP) and promoting women inclusiveness in non-oil export.

The Minister noted: “I will like to reiterate that our Ministry fully supports MSMEs, as demonstrated by our MSME Survival Fund Initiative which was launched in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic by the Federal Government as part of the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP); aimed at protecting MSME businesses from the shocks the Pandemic.

“The Payroll Support Scheme which aims to support MSMEs in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs by paying up to N50,000 to a maximum of 10 employees in each MSME for three months.”

The Minister said the National MSMEs Clinics also support the growth of small businesses across the country through the provision of critical infrastructure, with twenty-six of such clinics having impressive results

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Business

Taiwo Afolabi calls on African businesses to scale up their operations for global relevance

Gloria Odion, Maritime reporter 
Dr. Taiwo Afolabi, Chairman, SIFAX Group, has called on African entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders to prioritise the growth of large, sustainable corporations capable of competing globally, rather than operating fragmented and small-scale enterprises that limit the continent’s economic potential.
Speaking at the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali, Rwanda, Afolabi said Africa’s economic transformation would depend significantly on the emergence of strong indigenous corporations with the scale, structure, and capacity to drive industrialisation, create jobs, attract investment, and compete internationally.
According to him, discussions at this year’s forum reinforced the urgent need for African businesses to embrace collaboration, long-term thinking, regional integration, and strategic expansion.
He said: “Africa cannot achieve its full economic potential with thousands of weak and fragmented businesses operating in silos.
“What the continent needs are strong institutions and large corporations that can survive beyond their founders, scale across borders, attract global capital, and compete with the best companies around the world.”
Afolabi noted that while entrepreneurship remains critical to Africa’s growth story, the continent must deliberately move beyond subsistence and lifestyle businesses towards building enduring enterprises with robust governance systems, innovation capacity, and continental reach.
He stressed that African governments, financial institutions, and private sector stakeholders must create enabling environments that support business scalability through improved infrastructure, access to finance, favourable regulations, and intra-African trade.
“The conversations at the Africa CEO Forum clearly showed that Africa’s future lies in integration and scale.
“The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) presents a historic opportunity for businesses to expand beyond national borders and build truly pan-African enterprises,” he added.
Afolabi noted that SIFAX Group’s long-term vision is anchored on strengthening intra-African trade and supporting the successful implementation of AfCFTA through investments in logistics, ports, transportation, and digital finance solutions across Africa.
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Business

National Single Window goes live in March, 2026 

– as FG launches phase 1 of the project for trade facilitation 
Funso OLOJO
The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced the commencement of Phase 1 of the National Single Window (NSW) Project, scheduled to launch on March 27, 2026.
The launch marks a decisive step toward reforming Nigeria’s trade ecosystem through technology, transparency, and smarter regulation.
The National Single Window is a centralised digital platform designed to simplify and harmonise trade procedures by enabling traders to submit trade-related information once,
through a single interface, while relevant government agencies access, process, and approve the required documentation seamlessly.
 The initiative is expected to significantly reduce delays, eliminate duplication, curb inefficiencies, and lower the cost of doing business at Nigeria’s ports and borders.
Speaking on the transformative potential of the project during the inauguration of the project on the 16th of April 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu described the National Single Window as a cornerstone of Nigeria’s trade and economic reform agenda.
“The National Single Window will change the way trade is done in Nigeria. It will replace fragmentation with coordination, opacity with transparency, and delay with efficiency,” says Presidency.
The President added that the NSW aligns with the administration’s commitment to
economic diversification, non-oil export growth, and improved ease of doing business, noting that efficient trade systems are critical to national development.
Also speaking on the initiative, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, described the National Single Window as a game-changer that will simplify and
democratize trade in Nigeria.
Dr. Oduwole explained that the platform will streamline trade documentation through a unified window, enabling greater transparency, improved transaction tracking, and
increased trade volumes.
 She added that experienced traders, in particular, would benefit from the efficiency gains offered by the system.
Providing insight into the implementation strategy, Mr. Tola Fakolade, Director of National Single Window Project, explained that the Federal Government has deliberately adopted a phased rollout approach, beginning with Phase 1, which will focus primarily on statutory permits and manifests.
“The National Single Window will be rolled out in phases, starting with Phase 1, which concentrates on statutory permits and cargo manifests,” Mr. Fakolade stated.
“This allows us to stabilise the system, build confidence among stakeholders, and deliver immediate value where bottlenecks are most pronounced.”
According to Mr. Fakolade, the decision to phase the launch reflects lessons learned from previous large-scale technology initiatives that adopted a “big bang” approach.
“We have learned from the flaws of past big bang technological rollouts, where attempting to do everything at once created avoidable disruptions,” he noted.
 “Phasing the National
Single Window is a deliberate and strategic choice—one that prioritises sustainability, user adoption, and continuous improvement over speed for speed’s sake.”
He further emphasized that subsequent phases will gradually expand the scope of the platform, onboard additional agencies, and deepen integration across the trade value chain, ensuring a resilient and scalable system.
“This approach ensures that the National Single Window grows with the ecosystem, guided by real data, user feedback, and operational realities,” Mr. Fakolade added.
As Phase 1 goes live, the Federal Government reaffirmed its commitment to working closely with the private sector, development partners, and trade stakeholders to ensure a smooth
transition and shared ownership of the reform.
“By simplifying trade processes and leveraging digital innovation, we are unlocking faster movement of goods, strengthening revenue assurance, and creating a more competitive
environment for Nigerian businesses to thrive locally and globally.” Mr. Fakolade added.
With the launch of the National Single Window, Nigeria takes a bold and pragmatic step towards modern trade governance—one that places efficiency, transparency, and learning at the heart of national progress.
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Business

Access bank laments cargo glut, financial losses to importers caused by its service glitch

– restores customs transactions on its platform 
Gloria Odion 
Access Bank Plc has  expressed its regret over the accrued demurrages to importers, cargo glut at the port which the temporary disruption of its services on its ACCESS PAY(B’Odogwu) platform has caused majority of importers and their agents.
The bank’s interactive platform with Customs went down for three days between November 10th to 12th, 2025, causing agony and anguish among the freight forwarders who could not conduct transactions on the platform with the Customs, resulting to mounting demurrages and cargo glut at the port.
However in a statement made available to newsmen, the bank confirmed the restoration of its customs transaction services and urged its distraught custom to come forward with their Customs payment.
Access bank further explained that the glitch occured due to a connectivity issue between Access Bank’s network and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) system.
The glitch temporarily hindered the processing of payments and related transactions via the ACCESS PAY (B’ODOGWU) platform.
“The issue was fully resolved on November 12th, 2025, and normal service operations have since been completely restored.
“Customers can now process Customs-related payments and transactions seamlessly through Access Bank channels,” the statement read.
The bank expressed regret over the inconvenience caused, acknowledging that the downtime led to delays and concerns among customers, particularly regarding demurrage charges.
Access Bank assured stakeholders that proactive measures have been put in place to prevent a recurrence, reiterating its commitment to service reliability and customer satisfaction.
“Access Bank appreciates the patience and understanding of its customers during the period of disruption and thanks them for their continued trust and partnership,” the statement concluded.
However, despite the service restoration by the bank, its customers are still aggrieved over what they described as unwarranted extra charges in form of accrued demurrages which they were made to incur and which they claimed have added additional costs to the clearing of their trapped cargo at the port.
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