FG has commenced the disbursement of Survival Fund to Nigerians, Minister has said.
Newsonline reports that the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Chief Niyi Adebayo has revealed that the sum of N56.84 billion has been disbursed to the drivers of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
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According to THIS DAY, this has been given out of the N75 billion survival fund earmarked to energise the sector by President Buhari’s administration. Information Guide Nigeria
The minister disclosed this on Monday at the opening of a technical session of the 13th meeting of the National Council on Industry, Investment, and Trade held in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.
THIS DAY reports that the minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Evelyn Ngige, said: “On the N75 billion MSME Survival Fund, the programme has disbursed N8.80 billion to 293,336 beneficiaries under the Artisan Support & Transport Scheme, N43.92 billion to 459,334 beneficiaries under the Payroll Support Scheme, and N4.12 billion to 82.491 beneficiaries under the MSME Grant Scheme.
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“In total, the sum of N56.84 billion has been disbursed to 835,161 beneficiaries under the MSME Survival Fund scheme.”
According to him, the ministry had begun full activation of the six private sector-led Special Economic Zones of Lekki, Enyimba, Funtua, Ibom, Kano, and Benue and are working through the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority to ensure the Authority delivers the establishment of three SEZs in 2022.
“in line with the presidential directive for the establishment of at least one Agro-Processing Zone in each of the 109 senatorial zones, commenced the process of collecting agro-commodities data in 16 states of Ebonyi, Plateau, Edo, Jigawa Ondo, Gombe, Abia, Benue, Osun, Sokoto, Zamfara, Enugu, Ekiti, Bauchi, Kebbi and Bayelsa for the first phase of the implementation”.
“Ensuring credit access to 10 million MSMEs at a single-digit rate. In the implementation of this strategic pillar of the federal government to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country, the ministry through the Bank of Industry (BoI) has disbursed N15 billion to 863 MSME businesses across several sectors.
“The ministry, through the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), has trained one thousand, two hundred and eleven (1,211) beneficiaries under its Info-Tech Skills Empowerment Programme (ISEP), Passion to Profession, and other Special Skills Intervention Programmes. Jamb Result
“These initiatives are all geared towards Mr. President’s promise of taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next 10 years”.