NIGERIA (Bauchi)- The Central Bank of Nigeria Branch Controller in Bauchi State, Malam Musa Muhammed, has disclosed that N132 billion has been earmarked for women empowerment by the Apex bank.

He said this in Bauchi on Thursday during a sensitisation workshop for state governments, financial institutions and the organised private sector on MSMED Fund.

According to Muhammad, the amount was earmarked for women considering the peculiar challenges which they face in accessing financial services.

He said: “The Revised Micro finance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework in section 4.2(IV), provides that women access to financial services should increase by 15 per cent annually in order to eliminate gender disparity.

“In order to achieve this, 60 per cent of the fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women,” he said.

He added that the MSMEDF, which was launched in August 2013, had broad objective of channeling long-term, low-interest funds to the MSME sector of the economy through participating financial institutions.

 “The CBN believes that developing the MSMEs is the key to economic advancement and wealth creation.

“To ensure sustainable economic development programmes, policies and guidelines must be designed such that all factors and peculiar needs and requirements of stakeholders are noted and addressed,” he said.

Mohammed also said that all state governments including the FCT will access a maximum of N2 billion each for three years per circle at 9 per cent interest rate.

The targeted groups, according to him, include farmers, artisans, self help groups, cottage industries, financial cooperatives and traders.