THE GUARDIAN, ThuOOa)l June 16, 20U
BUSINESS lIS
Business Appointment P29
Insurance P57
Engineers seek appointment of substantive power minister
Experts predict insurance boom in Nigeria
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World Bank extends timeline for Nigeria's $30m MSMEs' projects hom Milhlu Okwe, AbuJI
'T'H E World B~nk has 1 extended the I'rol'" u mellne of IU $)0 mil iOIl (N4.S billion) Micro 5m;'l ll and Medium Enterprises (M5MES) In N i ge ri ~ from June to D«ember this year, ~ccording to the Execulive Secret~ry of the Nigerian Investment Promollon Council (N IPC), MuslOIfa Bello, who is cur· rem ly touring some of the lroje<ts to assess the level of mplementation, made t he
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disclos ure re cent ly in Ka duna, when he led Jour· ndlists o n tour of some of the suppon ed institutions, includmg a large scale and successfu l microfinance and a nou rishi ng, cQmmer· cla lly oriented bu si ness development services com· poilnies. He alsoca tled on President Goodluck Jonathan to chan· nd t he NSO blillon budget· ary provision for job cre· atlon in 2011 Budget to be c hann eled through the MSME project.
Th e project mainly targets those intermediaries that provide services to MSMEs, such as financial and bu~iness development support, rather than directly targeting th e businesses themselves. The MSMEs project with life sp.1n from 200S to 2011, is a pilot programme of the Wo rld B.lnk and Nigeria. It is being Implemented by the Nigerian Inves tment Com mission Pro motion (N lrc) throug h a Project Manoilgement Unit (PM U),
managed by Nathan EME Umiled. and Develo pment Associates (DA). was orlgi· nally billw to wind down this month, but following appeal s by (he Nige rian Govern ment because of the success r~te, l he World Bank had toeJttend Its funding by
Six months, accordi ng to Bello. The project was designed ' to improve performance and employment levels of MSMEs In selected non-oil sub-sectors wit hin three SLa teS In Nigeria (Abla, Ka duna an(l Lagos), altho ugh some interve n· tions extended {O Crou RIver and Oyo Stales. The pmject aims (0 achieve Increased private senor investment for MSME devel· opment by de monsu~t in& how a combination of
H.....a/I f\esoUfees DII..::,or, UIIII_r Nieeria PIc, TGlulope A&iri Oeh); MUlilCine Director, Thabo-Mabe; Brand Buildin( Dilectot, Devid Okeme; and Direttol, Siudelllstnfle41 £ntl~, Adesuwa Ifedi; durin, I press conferellCe on UnivemJY Idea Tlophy Base Canpailn. oreilnised by' Ihe company,ln leeos,yesterday.
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~=_-: P:: HOTD .PA ULOLOK0
IFAD to inject $75m in new agric programme, says official 71-tE International Fund for
1 A g ri c u I t u r a I Oeve[opment ( IFAD) will Inject S7S million (Ntt.6 bll· lion) into the new Value Cham Development Programme which Is now in lis fina l design stages, a n omcial said. The [FAD Country Programme Manager, AbdOul &any, made the d isclosure in an imerview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) III Ahuja, yesterday. Bany SOlid that the programme, which ta rgets Nigeria's twO malor ~tap l es - cassava amI nce -
emerged fro m the UN agency's Country Strategic Opportunitic;s Progra mme (COSDP) ap proved by IFAD's Executive "Odrd In April 2010. He said that the programme targeted smallhold· er farm ers, including women, youths and me n actively involved in agrtcui· (une and would be imple. me nted through the Commu nity - D r iven Development appfOdch. He sa id before the com· me ncement of full Implc· mt ntation of the programme, fanners and fanner
organisations would be sen· si tised Whi le the Nationa l Monitoring ;lnd Eva lualion (M&E) system wo uld a lso be strengthened. &any said that 5500,000 had been earmarked for the t\vo activities with 1400,000 bud'!!!tted for sensitha tion and loo,ooo forstrengthen· Ing mOni tori ng and evalua· tion. On the issue of possible cofinoilncingo( the programme, the Country Programme Manoilger saId IFAD was will· ing to collaborate with (he Afri ca n Development Bank (AlDB) and Ihe Alliance for a
Green Revo lution in Africa (AGR.A~
lie explained that IFAD had approached AIDa fo r possl· ble collabor.Ulon on the new plan ilnd that the bank could only decide where to invest its resources whe n Its Country Strategy Programme for Nigeria was ready:: . The IFAD-fu nded Value Cha in Programme cannot unde.nake all activities- ~ Iong the Viilue chain. We will have to collaborate with certain donor·funded programmes. " We have a lready approached t he AIDB to try
tOco-finance the current prog ramme. AfOB Is about to stan the Country Strate$)' Programme for Nigena. When they do, around November·December, they will know exactly when' to invest. .. But the ADa Is very good at fu ndi ng activities related to in rras t rucNre,~ he said &any explained that IFAD W.1;5 good in {ra ining and mobilisIng communities but would need to parmer with o rganisat io ns good in the area of providing proceSSing technologIes and InfraSlruc· ture.
Investment climate refo rms, improved access to financ!! and business devel· opment services can transfo rm the rale of growth of MSMEs In Nigeria. Folluwing inte rnationa l beSl prac tices and lessons learnt, the project mainly targets t hose intermedl' aries I1Mt provide setvices to MS/l.IEs, such u fi nancial and bUSiness developme nt suppon, rllther than direct· COHTINUfD ON PAGE 16
A fillip for ECOWAS '"J"'H E world Bank has 1 expressed its willing. ness tu deepen cooperoil' lion with EconomiC Comm un ity of West African States (ECOWAS) to promOte its regional intI" gration in the sub-region. A repon by ECOWAS yes· terday quoted Ihe bank's Vice President, African Region, Or Obiagtll Eze"kwcsill, as saying that ,. ECOWAS is o ne o f the bank's Important partner· s" and commended its inl· tlatives to promote economic development in Ihe sub- regio n. The reron stated that EzekwesJI made the re ma rk in Washington DC when s he received ~ delegation from ECOWAS, led b}' Or Ada Okwuosa. Ihe Com missioner for Adminis t ration oiInd Finance. She said t hat such part· nershlp wou ld fast·t rack ECQWA5 new Regiona l Stratellic Plan a tmed at revlewlllg iU existing innl· tutional Structure. The bank also gave recom· mendatlons to ECDWAS for effect ively ru nnm g its opera tions, Including the establishment of a task force on strategic plan· nmg, human resources, com munity com pUler cen· tre and externa l relations com mu nica tions. Ol hers are educa lion, cui· rural science and technology directorates with the view to developing oil mech· anism for Imj'llementmg a Soulh·Sourh type regiona l cooperation. ECOWAS is a 15 member orga nisa tiOn, eStablished In 1975 to promote economic coope ra tion oiInd integrati on In the s ubregion, and President Good luck lonathan . Is its current chairma n.