of 1, 743 trainees were linked to financial institutions from which they obtained loans amounting to n227. 84 million to start or expand their businesses. this first phase of the cbn - edc initiative came to an end april 2013 having operated for 5 years. ladies and gentlemen, for sustainability purposes, i am pleased to inform you that the management of the bank has extended the tenure of the first phase cbn - edcs by an additional three years to enable the host state governments in the aforementioned zones key in and participate actively in the enhanced edc model. the bank is therefore in the process of putting together phase 2 of the programme for the south - east, north - west and south - west zones. 6. 0 the modest achievements recorded and the experiences of the edc have encouraged the bank to roll out the project in the remaining three geopolitical zones of northeast ( maiduguri ), north - central ( markudi ) and south - south ( calabar ). to date the new centres have trained all together 1, 381 participants in the first half of 2013, in spite of teething challenges faced. i particularly appreciate the government of cross river state for allocating a temporary training venue for the implementing agency, sheild academy bis central bankers ’ speeches partners to commence its training activities before today ’ s official flag - off of this magnificent building that will permanently host the centre. 7. 0 permit me at this point to take a few minutes to provide a brief highlight on the edc to create an understanding of its concept, operational modality and what is required from stakeholders ( government, cbn, implementing agencies, and financial institutions etc ) to make the programme a success. 8. 0 the edc provides a platform for state governments, private sector and the central bank of nigeria to jointly support entrepreneurship development across the country. the centres provide facilities for training particularly secondary school leavers and university graduates to obtain skills on how to identify, choose, and practically engage in profitable production of goods and services. 9. 0 the state government is expected to provide the enabling environment through the provision of conducive structure and a site for the centres, while the central bank of nigeria engages private consultants to independently operate the centres. it is worth reiterating that the states where the edcs are located and the implementation agency were selected through a competitive bidding process to guarantee efficiency and effectiveness in its operations. 10. 0 the governments of the respective states are also expected to en

needs of women. bis central bankers ’ speeches skilled women are likely to access finance more easily. therefore, a necessary step in enhancing finance for the women should be to ensure an upscale of their leadership, technical, entrepreneurial and managerial skills. an important priority for governments should be increasing the enrolment of girls across all levels of education complemented by efforts to improve the quality of education that they receive. while it is important to build the capacity of financial institutions to better serve women entrepreneurs, it is also imperative that women are provided with the opportunity to be financially literate, so that they can speak the language of finance. women face peculiar exclusion as a result of cultural, religious and social biases that hinder their access to financial services. it will be pertinent to explore the possibility of enacting laws that address gender inequality, sexual harassment and discrimination as first step towards improving their access to financial services. initiatives by the central bank of nigeria women component of micro, small and medium enterprises development fund ( msmedf ) in order to promote the development of the microfinance sub - sector and provide for the wholesale funding requirements of microfinance banks and microfinance institutions, the revised microfinance policy, regulatory and supervisory framework for nigeria provided for the establishment of a microfinance development fund. one of the key targets of the microfinance policy is to eliminate gender disparity by ensuring that women ’ s access to financial services increases by 15 per cent annually. in view of the peculiar challenges faced by women in accessing financial services in nigeria, the cbn has approved the establishment of msmedf. it is intended that a minimum of 60 per cent of the msmedf should be committed to providing funding to women in order to address their peculiar financial exclusion challenges. the key objectives include providing grants for capacity building of staff in microfinance institutions ( mfbs, mfis and similar institutions ) and their apex bodies on women based lending, promoting the development of regulatory provisions that are favourable to women lending, supporting initiatives that can improve financial literacy, entrepreneurship development for women clients, supporting programmes that are geared towards the mobilization of women, research and development, and promotion of women friendly financial innovations and products. financial inclusion and entrepreneurship development the central bank of nigeria ( cbn ) appreciates the fact that financial access, inclusion and literacy are cornerstones for reducing poverty. to his end, we have taken the lead in developing nigeria ’ s national financial inclusion strategy to ensure