Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has pledged adequate support for Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) towards economic growth of the state. The governor gave the assurance during the distribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enhancement business toolkits to MSEs in the state at Government House.
  
Represented by Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mrs. Folashade Arike-Ayoade, the governor said the distribution was in fulfilment of Kogi State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (KG-CARES) programme, Result Area 3, under the ICT enhancement grants.
  
According to him, the programme being anchored by Kogi Enterprise Development Agency (KEDA) was also aimed at supporting enterprises to embrace technology for business sustainability and economic development of the state.
  
He tasked the 100 beneficiary MSEs to make judicious use of the enhancement tools to boost their businesses and pathway for more incentives.

“From my understanding 50,000 MSEs applied for the incentives, but only 100 scaled through for this Phase One. More will be captured in the next phase,” he said.
 
 Bello said the government would set up a monitoring committee that would go round to the beneficiaries to ensure that all the tools were being put to use as expected.
  
Earlier, KEDA Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Rekiya Onaivo-Sanni, appreciated the governor’s commitment to strategically reposition the MSE sector for improved productivity.  
 
The MD cautioned the beneficiaries not to resell or give out the tools and keep their records for monitoring agencies from World Bank and the state government, so as not to lose their positions.
  
She advised interested applicants to apply online, else they would not be considered for the incentives. Some of the tools distributed include mobile tablets, printers, projectors, personal computers, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), Point of Sale (PoS), machines and Wi-fi devices.