EdFin Microfinance Bank has said it is partnering with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund to provide a single-digit interest rate loan worth N5bn to over 2,000 private schools and individuals looking to fund their education in Lagos State.
It said the N5bn intervention fund was part of Lagos State government’s initiative to help schools recover from the shocks and losses from COVID-19.
The bank said this in a statement entitled ‘Edfin MfB and Lagos State Employment Trust Fund collaborate to provide N5bn in matching funding to schools and students in Lagos State.’
It said depending on the capacity, each school would have the opportunity to access up to N5m payable over 30 months at nine per cent per annum.
The statement said while speaking at a webinar on September 30, the Executive Secretary, LSETF, Mrs Teju Abisoye, disclosed the partnership with EdFin Microfinance Bank.
She said, “It is a matching fund loan programme to support education sector in Lagos State.
“The loans are targeted at schools and relevant educational institutions such as vocational training centres that have been in operation for over one year.”
According to her, the loan will also support young people looking for financing to fund their education.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, EdFin MfB, Ms Bunmi Lawson, who also spoke about the partnership, thanked the Lagos State government for the initiative.
She said this was the first dedicated education fund in Nigeria and EdFin, being the first specialised education finance bank, was happy to partner with the Lagos State government and the Lagos State education ecosystem to support schools with the funding they need.
The fund, she noted, would also assist employable persons fund their tuition to improve skills, enabling them increase their income.
She said while the past seven months had been very challenging, especially for school owners due to the global pandemic, there was cause for optimism as new opportunities emerged as schools gradually reopened.
She encouraged private school owners to leverage and maximise the unique opportunity the intervention provided, to help position their schools to harvest the gains of the post-lockdown era.
