Dept urged to question bank

THE Department of Commerce and Industry has been told to explain the K80 million given to the National Development Bank (NDB) to be used for loans to micro-small-medium enterprises (MSME).
MSME council president Des Yaninen urged the department to ask the NDB what has happened to the money.
“(It) should ask the NDB what is happening and then inform us all,” Yaninen said.
The Government had paid the K80 million to the NDB last November.
It was intended to be given out as loans for small-to-medium businesses.
The Government also paid K100 million to the Bank South Pacific (BSP) for the same purpose.
BSP has so far loaned out between K53 million and K58 million – with another K50 million in the pipeline.
The K180 million was part of the K200 million the Government had budgeted this year to support SMEs.
Attempts from The National to get comments from NDB on the K80 million were unsuccessful.