LSETF marks 10 years with N15bn loans, preserves 100,000 jobs in Lagos
The Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) says it has disbursed more than N15 billion in loans to businesses and supported the preservation of over 100,000 jobs in the state in its 10 years of operation.
The Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Akinyemi Bankole Ajigbotafe, disclosed this during a pre-summit press briefing ahead of the fourth Lagos Employment Summit scheduled for November 18, 2026, at the Landmark Event Centre, Lagos.
Ajigbotafe said the fund, established in 2016 to address unemployment and limited access to finance, had also disbursed more than 20,000 loans to businesses, trained over 30,000 young people and supported more than 1,200 technology startups.
He added that the fund had recorded a loan repayment rate of 94.5 per cent, describing the figures as evidence of the impact of sustained government investment and private-sector collaboration.
According to him, the interventions have gone beyond financial assistance to strengthen businesses, improve employability and create economic opportunities for individuals and their families.
Providing further details, the Executive Secretary of LSETF, Feyisayo Alayande, said the fund recorded a collection rate of about 94 per cent in the previous year, while its collections for the current year stood at approximately 90 to 91 per cent.
She maintained that the fund had mechanisms to recover outstanding loans, stressing that repayment remained important to sustaining its interventions and extending financial support to more businesses.
The commissioner said the 10th anniversary would provide an opportunity to assess the fund’s achievements, learn from its experiences and identify new strategies for expanding employment, enterprise development and economic opportunities across Lagos State.
