The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has waived the requirement for the provision of guarantors by households and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) applying for its N50 billion COVID-19 loan.
The N50 billion package was a provision by the bank for SMEs affected by coronavirus to stay in business and not lay off workers.
A statement by the CBN’s spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor explained that the waiver is to ease the concerns of those who had fulfilled all requirements for the loan but were yet to have their accounts credited, particularly as other persons had begun to receive credit alerts.
He advised all successful applicants whose accounts have not been credited, to visit the website of NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank and input their account details.
Okorafor also assured that all successful applicants of the COVID-19 loan will be credited within 48 hours.
“All successful household and SME applicants that have submitted their account details for the facility should expect to be credited within 48 hours.” He, however, urged any successful applicant that does not receive a COVID-19 Loan credit alert within 48 hours to call mobile number: 09010026900 for resolution.
All successful Household and SME applicants who have submitted their account details for the CBN N50bn COVID-19 Targeted Credit Facility should expect their accounts to be credited within 48 hours of such submission, otherwise they should call 09010026900
— Central Bank of Nigeria (@cenbank) June 8, 2020
Mr Okorafor further stated that the money being disbursed is loans and should not be taken as grants.
He urged eligible households and small businesses to take advantage of the stimulus package to revive their businesses and contribute to steering Nigeria away from recession.
The Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), a department of the apex bank through which the loan is been disbursed, had announced that 80,000 Nigerians applied for the loan.
So far, CBN has already credited 3,256 successful COVID-19 loan applicants.
