Imoke Assents To Micro Finance Agency Bill

CALABAR, Dec 03, (THEWILL) - Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke has assented to the Cross River State Micro-finance and Enterprise Development Agency Bill 2010 with funding already provided for its smooth take off in the 2011 budget. Speaking shortly after endorsing the bill in Calabar, Imoke contended that the Micro finance and enterprise development agency will among other things encourage, support and facilitate proper financing of small and medium enterprises (SMES) in the state in order to build capacity of aspiring business entrepreneurs, adding that it will also facilitate strategic increase of financial institution and other development association and non-governmental organization. He maintained that the agency will serve as a vista of opportunity while collaborating and managing relationship between public and private enterprises as well as support the growth of the private sector that will in turn transform the economic landscape of the state while thanking those who contributed in documenting the bill which according to him is robust enough to adequately accommodate private sector support. Imoke reasoned that the agency was conceived out of his administrations burning desire of changing the status of the state of from being a civil service state to a more prosperous society and expressed the hope that when fully implemented, the state will witness unparalleled economic transformation. Earlier, the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Fidelis Ugbo said that the conception of the agency was as a result of the desire of the state government to create channels to reach and build on public private partnership driven economy with emphasis on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMES), adding that the micro-finance and enterprise development bill 2010 is a fundamental document to actualize those lofty initiation that will have positive impact on the citizenry.