Minister of Finance Olusegun Aganga yesterday explained why banks fail to finance small businesses.

Aganga, receiving the report of the committee on job creation from frontline businessman Aliko Dangote, said banks refuse to fund small businesses because of “lack of well developed business plans and financial acumen.”

Aganga also spoke on the state of the economy. He said: “Nigerians continue to question the growth we are experiencing because they struggle to reconcile it with the level of unemployment.”

Government, he said, “is committed to generating inclusive growth”, stressing that “economic growth with a reduction in the level of unemployment and poverty is the key to creating an inclusive society.”

The aim of government, Aganga pointed out, is to foster economic growth by providing opportunities for economic and human development, accelerate job creation, place employment and poverty alleviation at the core of economic growth strategy, improve the quality of jobs for the people, develop an enterprise culture and prepare the workforce for future challenges and opportunities.

To achieve these goals, the federal government, he added, is focusing on the most labour intensive sectors like agriculture, housing and manufacturing and has already established a growth and employment pact with the support of the World Bank. This is expected to bring public and private sector stakeholders together in the construction, entertainment, tourism, ICT, meat and leather sectors in order to reach an undertaking on enhancing growth and employment in their individual sectors.

The federal government, he said, is working in conjunction with the Lagos Business School to create enterprise development centres for Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs).

Meanwhile, Wema Bank PLC has concluded its recapitalisation.

The bank raised N7.5 billion from the Special Placement Offer approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It made recoveries of N4 billion on its outstanding loans within the same period.

Consequently, the CBN will embark on the verification of the capital raising exercise and confirmation of the loan recoveries.

The full recapitalisation is expected to be concluded with the sale of some of the bank’s non – performing loans to the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) when the latter becomes operational.

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