FG task states to partner SMEDAN to boost food production

The Federal Government has urged the state governments to partner with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to grow small businesses in their respective state to solve the current food insecurity in the country.

Mr Charles Odii, Director-General, SMEDAN, Mr. Charles Odii, stated this while inaugurating the Federal  Government’s N50 billion grant for small businesses in Asaba, Delta State.

Odii, who spoke in an interview with newsmen in Asaba, said 60 received the Federal government’s N50,000 grant in Delta North to add to the value chain to boost food production in their areas.

He said that President Bola Tinubu earmarked the sum of N50 billion to give to at least one million NANO businesses across the country, adding that each beneficiary would receive N50,000 each.

Odii said that the federal government’s decision to inject N50 billion into small businesses was to introduce them to alternative sources of income and build their capacity to enable them to unlock access to more funds and wealth.

“The NANO businesses of SMEDAN are those businesses that have at least three employees with a turnover of less then three million naira. Poverty does not know political party, sex, or age, a hungry man is an angry man,” he said. “There is a triangle that I like to say, hunger lead to anger and anger leads to violence. This is the reason why we have a lot of youth unrest.

“One of the things we are doing as a long-term solution is to help improve the capacity of our people while the short-term solution is to give them grants as we are doing now.”

He urged the state governments to partner with the agency to develop the capacity of the small businesses in the country, saying, “When a small business grows, a family grows. You feed one small business owner, you have fed at least 10 people.”

Odii explained that the beneficiaries were selected via a seamless process with a technology-based system that was based on merit.