The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee has developed a Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI) as part of efforts to boost job creation in Nigeria, particularly among the youth.
The initiative has four pillars: fashion, information technology, movie and music. What that means is that the special loan facility can only be accessed by people with businesses in the creative sector.
The apex bank did not mention the total amount for the latest intervention. Under the new initiative, a software engineering student can get a loan of up to N3 million, while those in the movie production business can access maximum loan of N30 million, with N500 million for movie distribution business.
The loan amounts cover rental/service fees for fashion and information technology business, training fees, equipment fees, and rental/service fees for music business.
“Interested applicants in the creative industry are hereby advised to submit applications to their banks for approval and disbursement,” the CBN said in an announcement on its website yesterday.
The maximum interest rate of 9 per cent per annum (all charges inclusive) is applicable to all loans, the statement said.
On the period for the repayment of the loan, CBN said, for Software Engineering Student Loan, it is a maximum of three years; Movie Production and Distribution: maximum of ten years; for Fashion, Information Technology (IT) and Music, it is a maximum of ten years.