National Economic Reconstruction Fund
NERFUND
About
The National Economic Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND) was a Nigerian financial institution set up to support indigenous micro, small and medium scale industrial enterprises by providing medium to long term financing. It was later closed, after a special assessment by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Central Bank of Nigeria found it was too expensive to run and had a weak balance sheet, with high salary costs and overheads.
History
NERFUND was established in 1989 under the NERFUND Act, cap.254. Years later, the mandates of the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, the Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry and NERFUND were merged, leading to the establishment of the Bank of Industry in 2001. As of 2013, it was reported that NERFUND ran at huge losses of up to N5.7 billion. By 2017 it had N17.5bn in bad loans. Following the assessment, Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, announced the closure of NERFUND.
Key Facts
Established
1989
Abbreviation
NERFUND