Nigeria’s foremost businesswoman, Folorunso Alakija, has lamented that Nigerian banks requirements for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are too stringent.
Alakija, disclosed when she was a guest on CNN’s “One World with Zain Asher”.
The philanthropist talked about the African economy and how Nigeria as Africa’s engine room could diversify its economy to the benefit of its growing population.
She said high inflation, high-interest rates and unemployment were having negative impacts on SMEs, adding that this was even the fact that Nigeria was recording a positive economic growth rate of 3.4 per cent last year.
Alakija said the government should impress on banks to reduce their stringent requirements for SMEs.
She said, “The government has a big role to play; get banks to reduce the usually stringent requirements for SMEs, and interest rates need to be lowered. The government also needs to improve the quality of infrastructure; infrastructure is an area that is causing problems and it has negative impacts on SMEs in the country.”
