FG Disburses N56.84bn to MSMEs Under Survival Fund Scheme

James Emejo in Abuja

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Mariam Katagum, yesterday said over N56.84 billion has so far been disbursement to over 1.8 million Nigerians under the federal government’s MSME Survival Fund Scheme.

The N75 billion scheme is a core part of the N2.3 trillion Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) currently being implemented by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to help cushion the impact of the pandemic with a view to boosting the economy by saving existing jobs and creating new job opportunities.

The minister said the implementation of the scheme across the initial four tracks, namely payroll support scheme, artisan and transport scheme, formalisation support scheme as well as the general MSME grants had all, “yielded positive results that are verifiable and measurable and the impact is huge.”

Speaking at the flag-off of the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme (GOS) which is the last track of the intervention programme, Katagum who doubles as the Chairperson of the Steering Committee of the MSME Survival Fund, explained that the 500,000 beneficiaries were initially targeted under the payroll scheme adding that 459,334 successful beneficiaries had been reached across the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“Out of this number, we have recorded 43 per cent female-owned businesses and three per cent special needs,” she added.

The Artisan and Transport Scheme had an initial target of 333,000 Artisan and Transport beneficiaries.

Also 293,336 successful beneficiaries had also accessed funding under the artisan and transport scheme across the country while 244,162 small and growing enterprises had also been successfully registered free of charge.

She added that, the General MSME Grants Scheme had provided of grants to a total of 82,491 till date.

Katagum said: “To date we have successfully disbursed the sum of N56, 842,780,000.00 to 1,079,323 including those registered under CAC).”

She, however, 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.

She listed the products to include face masks, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, disinfectants and processed foods including as garri, palm oil, groundnut oil, and spices.

The minister said the items procured would be handed over to the state governments for onward distribution to schools, hospitals, NGOs as well as other public and private institutions which the states may wish to consider as beneficiaries.

She added: “The balance of funds from GOS will be re-purposed and applied to other tracks where there are high numbers of applicants on the waiting list. Again, this will be applied in a very equitable manner among the states.”

She said: “Building on the successes recorded in the implementation of the other tracks of the scheme and in line with the plan to fully rejuvenate the economy, especially MSMEs, in the manufacturing sector, the federal government is set to roll out the last component of the survival fund known as the Guaranteed Off-take Scheme (GOS).

“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.”