SMEDAN seeks CBN licence for microfinance bank as FG targets 1m more firms

By Progress Godfrey

ABUJA — The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is seeking a licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate a microfinance bank, allowing it to directly disburse and monitor funds meant for small businesses, as well as attract more international development finance.

This is even as the agency is lobbying the Presidency for one million more small businesses, in addition to its target of registering at least 250,000 new businesses in 2026.

Director-General of SMEDAN, Charles Odii, disclosed this during a media parley in Abuja on Wednesday, where he unveiled the agency’s five-point agenda for 2026, covering business formalisation, policy overhaul, financing, capacity building and infrastructure.

Odii said the push would significantly expand Nigeria’s MSME base, as government intensifies efforts to bring informal operators into the formal economy.

“And that is actually what 2026 is going to do; it is going to unfold all the good things that we’ve worked on for the last 18 to 24 months. And the first one will basically be the formalisation of our small businesses. In 2026, we would have over 250,000 new registered businesses, but we’re pushing with the presidency for another one million,” he said.

Beyond registration, he stated that SMEDAN plans to unveil a revised National MSME Policy in 2026, as the current policy framework last reviewed in 2021, expires by the end of this year.

“The second most important thing that will happen in 2026 is that we’re going to unveil the national MSME policy. We have a policy that governs the MSME ecosystem. And many of you are aware that the policy lasts for five years. The last one was done in 2021, and by the 31st of December, it should be reviewed,” he added.

He said the review process would be participatory, stressing that policies affecting MSMEs must reflect the realities of operators across the 36 states and the FCT, with completion targeted for the first quarter of 2026.

On financing, the SMEDAN boss emphasised that access to affordable credit would be a major focus in 2026, of about N12 billion, with the agency brokering single-digit loans for millions of small businesses nationwide.

“There’s going to be a lot of funding for our small businesses. And by funding, I mean cheap funding. The money that we have negotiated is at a single digit. It is at 9%. The most expensive one is 9.5%,” Odii stated.

He said about 500,000 MSMEs had already accessed such funding, but SMEDAN was aiming to scale this to between three million and five million businesses to reflect the size of the sector.

He added that capacity development forms the fourth pillar of the 2026 agenda, with SMEDAN planning to significantly expand training under its Integrated Capital Support Scheme to help MSMEs become bankable and unlock access to finance.

“If you ask all the banks today, they will tell you that there is money for small businesses,” he said, adding that poor capacity had limited access to existing funds.

According to him, the final pillar is infrastructure, with SMEDAN working with state governments and development partners to replicate industrial hubs across the country, improve access to power and reduce the cost of doing business, which the DG linked directly to job creation and national security.

The post SMEDAN seeks CBN licence for microfinance bank as FG targets 1m more firms appeared first on Vanguard News.