By Usman D Aliyu
Jigawa state government has signed N6billion Memorandum of Understanding ( MOU) with Bank of Industry to facilitate access to soft loan for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the state.
Speaking at the signing of the MOU held at Dutse Government House, Governor Namadi said, the occasion was a milestone in his government journey toward poverty eradication, jobs creation, growth and development.
Governor Namadi explained that, empowering people through their own business of choice is one of the strategy they adopted for accelerating growth and development in the state and Bank of Industry are potential and key partners in achieving so .
According to him:- “With the signing of this MOU we will now join hands with BOI to facilitate access to soft loan to our small, medium and even large scale business in the state.
“We are very happy today we have BOI branch in our state, while all relevant state government agencies are fully engaged to enlighten Jigawa citizens and support them to access the opportunities in the bank.
Earlier speaking, Executive Director, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Bank Of Industry, Alhaji Shekarau Umar said, the N6billion MOU signed with Jigawa state government is the biggest MOU signed with with any state government in the history of the bank.
He, said, in the last 13 years they have been writing letters and paying advocacy visit for the establishment of the bank in Jigawa state but no positive response, how ever within six month of such engagement with Governor Umar Namadi the BOI dreams become reality.
Shekarau commended Governor Namadi for being a man of his words and his unwavering commitment to empower Jigawa people for achieving poverty eradication, jobs creation, growth and sustainable development.