By PROVIDENCE OBUH

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced plans to launch the Financial Inclusion Strategy (FIS) and the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMESDF).

CBN broke the silence on the long awaited launch in a circular posted on its website, signed by the Director Development Finance Department Mr. Paul Eluhaiwe, stating that President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to inaugurate the MSMEDF prepared by the apex bank, scheduled to hold on Tuesday, 23rd October, 2012 in Abuja

According to Eluhaiwe, the President would be supported by Princess Maxima of the Netherlands who will be visiting Nigeria on the invitation of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 22nd to 24th October.

Maxima is the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s Special advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development.

“Concurrently, the regional meeting of the Child and Youth Finance Initiative for Africa and the Peer Learning Programme of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion, involving 17 participating countries would also hold from 23rd to 24th October,” Eluhaiwe added.

Meanwhile, MSMEDF is a fund established to provide grants for capacity building of staff in microfinance institutions, on women based lending, promoting the development of regulatory provisions that are favourable to women lending, supporting initiatives that can improve financial literacy and entrepreneurship development for women clients. Other key objectives include supporting programmes that are geared towards the mobilisation of women, research and development, and promotion of women-friendly financial innovations and products.

At the Development Finance Officers’ Conference held recently in Akwa Ibom State where officials of the CBN and other stakeholders converged, CBN Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi emphasised the importance of recognising that women are crucial players in the attempt to grow the country’s small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and ultimately lead to the country’s economic development.

Sanusi lamented that 76.8 per cent of adult females are unbanked, poor and vulnerable despite constituting over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population, estimated at about 167 million people, saying, if Nigeria must tap into the economic capacities of women, then the gap must be bridged.

Represented by Director, Development Finance Department of CBN, Mr. Paul Eluhaiwe, the governor said, “The most recent efforts of the CBN in improving access to finance by women are the Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria, National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) and the N220bn Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF).”

“The NFIS is targeted at reducing Nigeria’s exclusion rate from 46.3 to 20.0 per cent by 2020. The Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria is focused on increasing women access to financial services by 15 per cent annually. The MSMEDF would dedicate a minimum of 60 percent of its fund to women enterprises when it commences operations,” he said.