The World Bank has approved $500 million credit for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria, a statement from the Breton Wood Institution said, adding that it will nearly double West Africa’s Ebola funding to $400 million.

The loan will be extended to entrepreneurs through International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and will go towards supporting  SME growth in Nigeria through the establishment of a Development Finance Institution (DFI), PUNCH reported.

“Limited access to finance is a key obstacle to enterprise growth and entrepreneurship, particularly for young people, and it is a major obstacle faced by SMEs. Only 6.7 per cent of Nigerian firms reported having a loan or active line of credit in 2014 and SME lending made up only around five per cent of total commercial bank lending,” World Bank’s  Country Director, Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly said in a statement.

“Women entrepreneurs in Nigeria are held back by knowledge gaps, limited access to markets, and challenges regarding land ownership rights which in turn limits their capacity to access to finance,” she added.

The bank added that the project drew on experiences from other countries, such as Germany, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico, and had been developed in collaboration with other donors supporting development finance reforms in Nigeria, namely the African Development Bank, Germany’s KFW, French Development Agency, and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development. The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Finance and is expected to run for seven years.

Meanwhile, the Institution also announced nearly doubling funding in Ebola Crisis to $400 million. The significant new assistance, it explained, is planned for hardest-hit countries — Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, The Guardian reported.