FG To Unveil N50bn Survival Fund For MSMEs,
***CACOVID Begins N23bn Food Palliatives Distributions For 10m Nigerians
The Federal Government has said that as part of efforts to restart economic activities in the country in the face of the COVID-19 diverstations a series of stimulus packages will soon be made available to assist operators in the private sector.
Some these include a N50 billion survival fund for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and a N15 billion Guaranteed Uptake Scheme to save 500, 000 jobs.
In the MSMEs intervention, 40 per cent of the fund will be reserved for women-owned businesses.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, who made this known at a virtual meeting attended by members of the Organised Private Sector of Nigeria (OPSN), assured that his ministry would support and work with the private sector to put the economy ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic on a solid footing.
The virtual meeting was attended by the President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA)/President of the OPSN, Hajiya Saratu Iya Aliyu; and the President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ahmed Mansur. Other attendees were the President of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Mr. Taiwo Adeniyi; and the President of Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Sir Orimadegun Agboade.
In a similar development, the private sector led Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) on Thursday formally announced the flag-off of a nationwide distribution of multi-billion naira food palliative and other relief items to mitigate the adverse effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic on vulnerable Nigerians.
The food relief materials for which the private sector operators are spending about N23 billion, will cover 1.7 million families amounting to about 10 million people across the 774 local governments in the country, including the Federal Capital Territory. CACOVID Administrator and CEO of Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), Zouera Youssoufou, disclosed in Lagos that the food distribution is the next phase in the line of actions mapped out by the coalition to partner government in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and relieve the vulnerable people of the burden posed by the outbreak of the disease. Zouera revealed that with the announcement in Lagos, the Coalition has divided the nation into the six geo-political zones and the distribution was being flagged-off simultaneously in states such as Adamawa, Yobe, Ekiti Ogun, delta, Edo, Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna, Plateau, and Nasarawa.
