Adetilewa Adebajo, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The CFG Advisory has stated that Nigerian banks don’t finance SMEs.
Adebajo, who stated this in an interview monitored on Arise Television noted that SMEs source their funds informally.
His reaction follows the raised monetary policy rate (MPR) which benchmarks interest rates to 26.75 per cent from 26.25 per cent and the rise in the country’s inflation rate to 34.19 per cent.
Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), announced the rate adjustment on Tuesday at the end of the committee’s 296th meeting in Abuja.
Adebajo, who also spoke on the impasses between Dangote Refinery and the NNPCL noted that Aliko Dangote has been exporting his products for a while and can decide to continue to do so.
He said, “He has been exporting urea for three years already. he has been exporting aviation fuel, he has been exporting diesel, so if they don’t want the refinery, he will just continue to export to other countries.
“But having said that, if somebody makes a $20 billion investment, I think what is important is we look at our energy security. But the biggest challenge is that for the past 25 years in this country, we have been importing petroleum products and we have four moribound refineries that have not been working. The NNPC has a case to answer. For two years, they have not been able to fix four refineries and to make matters worse, in the last 14 years, we have spent N27 trillion on subsidy and close to N35 trillion on fuel importation.
“So its a travesty and that is why I said earlier that there is no argument in this situation because we have an industry or a project that can resolve the significant problem that we have in Nigeria today. So, like I said, if there is a conflict, let them resolve it.
“We have a challenge in this country and this project can resolve a lot of issues, so what I am saying is that there is no discussion here, what you need to do is sit down on a table and resolve the issues.
“..So, when you have a refinery that is working, then your revenues can come to your pocket and you don’t have to spend money on subsidy, that is why we all supported the removal of subsidy, so that the government can balance its projects and we can resolve the physical side of the issues.”
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