The federal government has announced the establishment of an N200bn Consumer Credit Corporation aimed at funding Nigerians’ credit purchases in the wake of economic hardship. President Bola Tinubu unveiled the plan on Sunday in his ‘State of the Nation’ address after hunger led to a nationwide protest with a major theme: #Endbadgovernance. But Tinubu maintained that floating the naira and removing fuel subsidy were necessary, adding that the government has made plans for palliatives.
According to him, since the removal of subsidy and floating the naira, aggregate government revenues more than doubled, hitting over N9.1trillion in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023.
Tinubu said, “I encourage more of our vibrant youth population to take advantage of this opportunity. We established the Consumer Credit Corporation with over N200bn to help Nigerians to acquire essential products without the need for immediate cash payments, making life easier for millions of households. This will consequently reduce corruption and eliminate cash and opaque transactions.
“This week, I ordered the release of an additional N50bn Naira each for NELFUND – the student loan, and Credit Corporation from the proceeds of crime recovered by the EFCC.” Tinubu revealed that the government has released N570bn to state governors to support citizens. “More than N570bn has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from our nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nano businesses are expected to benefit,” Tinubu said.
He said 75,000 beneficiaries have been processed to receive N1m Micro and Small Business single-digit interest loans which will commence this month. According to the president, large-scale manufacturers are receiving N1bn low-interest loans to boost manufacturing.
“We have also built 10 MSME hubs within the past year, created 240,000 jobs through them and 5 more hubs are in progress which will be ready by October this year.
“Payments of N1bn each are also being made to large manufacturers under our single-digit loans to boost manufacturing output and stimulate growth,” he added.
