
CBN to commence disbursement of N50bn COVID-19 fund by Thursday
April 22, 2020
CBN to commence disbursement – Barring any last-minute change in plans, the disbursement of the first tranche of the Central Bank of Nigeria N50bn targeted credit facility would begin on Thursday.
Source: Punch
The fund, which is being managed by the NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, has received over 80,000 applications.
The Managing Director, NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, Mr Abubakar Kure, confirmed the development in a telephone interview with our correspondent.
Kure, who did not provide the amount to be disbursed in the first tranche, said that those whose applications were successful would start receiving their fund on Thursday.
He said, “But we are hopeful that towards Thursday or Friday, the disbursement of the fund would commence.”
The CBN had introduced the N50bn Targeted Credit Facility as a stimulus package to support households and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read also: How to access CBN N50bn COVID-19 intervention loan
The N50bn intervention is being financed from the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund.
In terms of limit, the loan amount would be determined based on the activity, cash flow and industry size of beneficiary, subject to a maximum of N25m for SMEs.
Households can access a maximum of N3m while working capital would be a maximum of 25 per cent of the average of the previous three years’ annual turnover.
Based on the guidelines released by the CBN, those that can benefit from the fund are households with verifiable evidence of livelihood adversely impacted by COVID-19; existing enterprises with verifiable evidence of business activities adversely affected as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and enterprises with bankable plans.
According to the CBN guidelines, activities covered under the scheme include agricultural value chain; hospitality (accommodation and food services); health (pharmaceuticals and medical supplies); and airline service providers.
Others are manufacturing/value addition; trading and any other income-generating activities as may be prescribed by the CBN.

Raphael Orji is a freelance writer, professional blogger and a content marketing consultant. I work with small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs in building their brand image with high quality blogging and content marketing strategy.
In need of highly purposeful driven articles that will resonate with your audience,
Want this kind of article that engages, converts and compels your readers to buy from you,
If you want search Engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo to send and open the floodgates of readers to your website/blog on daily basis,
Want to rank your website/blog
Head over to my Hire Me page and see which of my services you’d like to have.