Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, has called on financial institutions in Nigeria to increase lending access for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
He made the call at a Webinar organised by a Financial Technology Association of Nigeria with the theme: “COVID-19: Enabling Speedy Business and Economic Recovery Through Regulations.”
Abdullahi observed that traditional banks’ lending processes have long been a barrier to assessing finance for businesses in Nigeria, noting that this was adversely affecting the SMEs operations.
He said, “The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted SMEs around the world, Nigeria inclusive. Our interventions are to help lead the tech startups from crisis to recovery as well as support them to navigate today’s challenging business landscape.”
Reiterating the promise of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to make lives better for Nigerians, Abdullahi revealed that immediately the government pronounced the lockdown, NITDA constituted a 10-man committee named Tech4Covid.
The objectives include identification of innovative solutions to address the pandemic; provision of enabling policies and incentives to cushion the impact; and building of massive digital skills to reskill the region to leverage technology in different sectors.
NITDA DG further recalled that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Ibrahim Pantami, directed all parastatals under the supervision of the ministry to set up an Innovation Research Fund for the startups.
Abdullahi listed government policies formulated to assist the startups as: National Outsourcing Strategic Policy, Nigeria Data Protection Regulation, Reviewing of Framework and Guideline for the Use of Digital Platform by Federal Public Institutions, and the National Cyber Security Policy