Sixteen members of Plastic Manufacturers Union in Onitsha, in Nigeria’s South-east, have received loan assistance worth 49 million naira (US$326,000) from the National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), to enable them increase their productivity, fight poverty and provide employments, according to the local media.
The privately-owned Guardian Newspaper reported Wednesday that each of the entrepreneurs got three million naira (US$20,000) to acquire machines and other logistics for their firms.
The single-digit interest loan would be repaid between three and six years without any collateral.
“Before now our loans were for small and medium-scale enterprises. But realising the difficulties confronting micro investors and the growing army of young graduates, who want to go into their own businesses and generate employment, we scaled down our loans to the entrepreneurs whose businesses are not more than N5million,” NERFUND Chief Executive Officer, Baba Maina Gimba, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
He said the disbursement of the loan was just the beginning of good things to come for the manufacturers, adding that more applications would soon be approved.
“We are discussing with the Nigerian-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Banjul Chamber of Commerce to establish Independent Power Plant (IPP) for the cluster. Once we are through and the result is successful, the manufacturers will get IPP,” Gimba said.
The union is a cluster of over 70 entrepreneurs, who are involved in the manufacturing of plastic items on Ezeiweka Road, Awada near Onitsha, a commercial town in the South-eastern state of Anambra
