Nigeria’s president Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a conditional grant of N50 Billion for small and medium-scale businesses across the 774 LGAs of Nigeria during his nationwide broadcast on the state of the economy.
Tinubu appealed to Nigerians to endure the pains associated with removal of fuel subsidy, assuring them that things would improve.
“Our administration recognises the importance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and the informal sector as drivers of growth. We are going to energise this very important sector with N125 billion.”
“Out of the sum, we will spend N50 billion on Conditional Grant to 1 million nano businesses between now and March 2024. Our target is to give N50,000 each to 1,300 nano business owners in each of the 774 local governments across the country.
“Ultimately, this programme will further drive financial inclusion by onboarding beneficiaries into the formal banking system. In like manner, we will fund 100,000 MSMEs and start-ups with N75 billion. Under this scheme, each enterprise promoter will be able to get between N500,000 to N1million at 9% interest per annum and a repayment period of 36 months.
“To further ensure that prices of food items remain affordable, we have had a multi-stakeholder engagement with various farmers’ associations and operators within the agricultural value chain.”
Earlier today, the President also approved the provision of buses to the student bodies of all universities, polytechnics and colleges of education across the country.
He said the development was necessitated to ease the burden of the fuel subsidy removal on students of higher institutions of learning,
“The desire of the President is to see that students can access their campuses without much difficulty as a result of higher transportation costs.
“The provision of the buses will also remove the burden of additional cost of daily commuting on parents and guardians,” Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications & Strategy, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.