The hard-working, brilliant young man, Mr. Akintunde Oyebode, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF), is in the news again! Recently, he and other Directors granted loans of N4.9billion to five thousand, eight hundred (5,800) SMES whilst also promising to do more by the end of the year.
This young man, who was appointed to manage billions of Naira with her Chairman, has not by any means disappointed the Governor, who put him there to manage the loans. Oyebode, in an interactive session, told Lagosians that by the end of March this year, more loans would have been granted, and that by the end of year 2018, those, who would have been granted loans, would have reached fifteen thousand (15,000).
Oyebode disclosed that, “The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund’s (LSETF) goal was to make Lagos the destination for innovation and technology in Africa. Already, we have raised $1m from the United Nations Development Programme to drive this.” He, however, said that there were certain criteria that must be met before any business could access the loan.
The LSETF boss added, “We are looking for credibility. We are looking for those, who have not misrepresented their performance. We are looking for clarity; people, who know exactly what they are using the loan for without inflating the cost of goods or services they want to pay for. We are looking for people, who can repay their loans; people, who can show that if they get the loans, they have a clear way of paying back. We are looking for people who, when we go and do credit checks, they have not been owing banks without repaying; they have not issued bounced cheques or lied about where they live or the size of their businesses.”
According to Oyebode, the LSETF verifies all the claims of applicants and does not necessarily make impossible demands. “We are not asking anybody to bring their grandmother’s hair for a collateral; all we are asking for is integrity. This is a taxpayers’ funded project; so we need to show accountability to ensure we get value from it,” Oyebode also disclosed that statistics from the repayment numbers had been impressive and thousands of jobs had been created by the various businesses for which the LSETF loans were granted.
“We are also looking into genuine cases of defaulters that cannot repay their loans, and proffering solutions as to how we can help. However, for those who are unwilling to repay their loans, we are taking legal actions against them,” he added.