The Federal Government has disbursed N56,842,780,000.00 to 1,079,323 beneficiaries under the micro and Small and Medium Enterprises Grants Scheme.
Amb. Mariam Katagum, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, who disclosed this in Abuja at the flag-off of the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme,said the implementation of the MSME Survival Fund across the initial four tracks: Payroll Support Scheme, Artisan and Transport Scheme, Formalisation Support Scheme and General MSME Grants have all yielded positive results that are verifiable, measurable and their impact has been huge.
She added: “Under the Payroll Support Scheme, our initial target was to reach 500,000 beneficiaries. Our current standing is put at 459,334 successful beneficiaries across the 36 States and the FCT. Of this number, we have recorded 43% female-owned businesses and 3% special needs.The Artisan and Transport Scheme had an initial target of 333,000 Artisan and Transport beneficiaries.
“We currently stand at 293,336 successful beneficiaries across the 36 States and the FCT. The CAC Formalisation Support Scheme set out to register 250,000 new businesses and I can report that to date, 244,162 small and growing enterprises have been successfully registered free of charge, across the 36 States and the FCT.Also, the General MSME Grants Scheme
had its initial target set at 100,000 MSMEs and we have successfully completed the provision of grants to a total of 82,491 till date.To date we have successfully disbursed the sum of N56,842,780,000.00 to 1,079,323 (including those registered under CAC).”
The minister said the last track of the MSME Survival Fund is the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme, adding that the Federal Government was set to roll out the last component of the Survival Fund known as the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme (GOS).
Explaining further on the Scheme, she said: “As you all know, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a drop in demand for corporate and household products and commodities in Nigeria just like it did in other parts of the world.
“It is in response to this that the Guaranteed Off-take scheme was conceived as part of the Federal Government’s interventions to assist small and growing businesses that were negatively affected by the pandemic.
“It is important to inform you at this point that this track had an initial target of 100,000 MSMEs across the country.
“By the time the portal closed, we had received a total of 65,976 applications across the country out of which we have verified and pre-qualified 50,032 MSMEs that we are presently processing to off-take their products.
She further explained that the purpose of GOS was to stimulate direct local production by enabling 100,000 MSMEs in the production sector with funds to produce ‘post COVID lockdown’ off-take products.
“These products include: face masks; hand sanitizers; liquid soap; disinfectants and processed foods such as garri, palm oil, groundnut oil, and spices.
“We have successfully carried out a mapping of products produced in sufficient quantities in each state of the Federation and the FCT, Abuja,” she said.
