FG pledges to cushion hardship, boost MSMEs

The Federal Government has said that it would do everything possible to cushion the discomfort being experienced by Nigerians.Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, stated this, yesterday, in Abuja, during the media activation and town hall meeting on federal government loan scheme for Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs), and manufacturing enterprises.

He said that boosting small businesses is integral to the economic reform agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, adding that the single-digit loan facilities will be complemented by the ongoing tax reforms designed to reduce the tax burden on Nigerian businesses.Idris noted that government is targeting the MSMEs with its intervention programmes because they remain the engine of the Nigerian economy, collectively employ over 80 per cent of the nation’s labour force, and contribute nearly half of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He said: “The goal is to diversify the Nigerian economy, create jobs, promote value-addition, revitalise the communities, and boost exports, and foreign exchange inflows. We are also keen to ensure that these targeted support programmes go a long way towards alleviating the pains and challenges being experienced on account of the bold economic reforms being implemented to put the country back on track of sustainable growth and prosperity.”

The minister stated that to ensure no part of the country is left behind, similar town hall meetings are being held simultaneously across the six geo-political zones of the country to gauge the sentiments of MSMEs as well as to mobilise them to take advantage of the interventions to further enhance their businesses.

Idris added that the Tinubu-led administration would reposition Nigeria for rapid economic growth and, in doing so, prioritise hardworking and energetic entrepreneurs across the country for its intervention schemes. He said that the first phase of the programmes was the N200 billion government’s intervention, amounting to N50 billion, which was disbursed as one-off conditional grants, targeted at the nano-businesses segment of the NMSMEs, adding that the second phase of N75 billion is targeting the micro, small and medium businesses.

The minister, however, said that all public information agencies, particularly the National Orientation Agency (NOA), would work closely with the Office of the Vice President to provide extensive public sensitisation on federal government’s intervention programmes nationwide.

However, more than 20,000 eligible small business owners in Ogun State have so far benefited from the Federal Government’s Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme (PCGS) of N50,000 for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs), which kick-started earlier in March this year.

The state manager of the scheme in the state, Michael Agidani, disclosed this at the town hall meeting and sensitisation programme on loan scheme for MSMEs held, yesterday, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.