The Central Bank of Nigeria in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee as part of efforts to boost job creation in Nigeria, particularly among the youth, has developed a Creative Industry Financing Initiative.
The CBN said on Monday that under the CIFI loan initiative, beneficiaries could get up to N500m loans at nine per cent interest rate.
It noted that the creative industries that could apply were fashion, Information Technology, movie production, movie distribution, music and software engineering student loan.
The apex bank stated, “Software engineering student can get a loan of up to N3m, N30m for movie production business, N500m for movie distribution business, cover your rental/service fees for fashion and Information Technology business, cover your training fees, equipment fees, and rental/service fees for music business.”
The CBN advised interested applicants in the creative industry to submit applications to their banks for approval and disbursement.
It also urged them to prepare the business plan or statement on how much they required for the business.
According to the CBN, the banks will discuss the request and provide the money.
“The maximum interest rate of nine per cent per annum (all charges inclusive) is applicable to all loans,” it stated.
On the period for the repayment of the loan, it said, “For software engineering student loan, it is a maximum of three years; for movie production and distribution, it is a maximum of 10 years; for fashion, Information Technology and music, it is a maximum of 10 years.”
Samson Oyedeyi
