23 January 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Bank of Industry, BoI, has launched a N1 billion intervention fund targeted at Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, across the country to enable them to provide solar energy as alternative source of power, especially for small businesses.
Explaining the basis for the new fund, BoI’s acting Managing Director, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, said solar energy like other renewable energy sources provide healthy and sustainable alternative to the use of harmful fossil fuels, and would afford beneficiaries long-term cost saving advantages, especially in the absence of reliable power supply.
He added: “It was estimated that in 2015, manufacturers spent as much as N3.5 trillion to generate alternative power due to the challenges in the supply of public electricity.
“MSMEs play a major role as the engine through which most countries in the world thrive.
“Their growth and development are crucial to the level of industrialization, modernisation, income per capita, equitable distribution of income, welfare and quality of life enjoyed by the citizenry.
“Consequently, the performance of the MSME sub-sector is closely associated with the development of a nation.
“In Nigeria, the growth of this sector has been hampered over the years by a combination of factors, one of which is access to reliable electricity.
“For Nigeria to, therefore, achieve sustainable and inclusive development, there is an urgent need to substantially increase the supply of modern and affordable energy services from sources that are affordable, accessible and environmentally friendly”.