President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that 238,868 individual beneficiaries, employed by 41,726 MSMEs across the country have so far benefited from the Payroll Support Program of the Federal Government.
This disclosure was made by the President in a statement via the official Twitter account of the Presidency.
The tweet partly reads:
- “238,868 individual beneficiaries employed by 41,726 MSMEs across the country have so far benefited from the Payroll Support Program of the Federal Government’s Survival Fund.”
UPDATE: As of Dec 8, 2020–
-238,868 individual beneficiaries employed by 41,726 MSMEs across the country have so far benefited from the Payroll Support Program of @NigeriaGov’s Survival Fund @SurvivalFund_ng
-43% of the employees/Beneficiaries are female
-Payments are continuing https://t.co/LtX7elSKDt— Presidency Nigeria (@NGRPresident) December 11, 2020
However, in a bid to capture more Nigerians, and ensure that not a single beneficiary is left unattended and paid, the Presidency disclosed that payments are still ongoing.
The President under this initiative reiterated once again that the current administration is keen on the survival of MSMEs in the country, as the Payroll Support Program by the Federal Government under the Survival Fund will provide adequate support to MSMEs, with staff salaries for 3 months.
This move is expected to provide an adequate buffer against the impact of the COVID-19 induced disruption.
According to the information contained in the tweet, 43% of the beneficiaries of the Payroll Support Program were female, while 57% were male.
The Government called on those who are yet to be credited under the program to exercise patience, as payments are still on-going.
What you should know
- In July, Nairametrics reported that the Federal Government had announced plans to roll out a N2.3 trillion stimulus package and survival fund for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), to stay afloat amid the economic challenges imposed by the pandemic.
- Nairametrics also reported on November 19, 2020, that President Muhammadu Buhari announced that 101,567 beneficiaries, drawn from 16,253 businesses, received their first monthly payment from the Payroll Support Program.
- In line with the recent disclosure, the Government has captured 137,301 additional individual beneficiaries and 25,473 MSMEs under the Payroll Support Program in about 23 days.
Why this matters
- The stimulus package under FG survival fund would go a long way to assist businesses in averting massive job loss or a crash of the business enterprises.
- The fund is expected to place affected businesses, which are beneficiaries of this fund, on the path of survival and sustainable growth.
- The Payroll support programme will also help to cushion the loss of jobs and sustain means of livelihoods of individuals and employees, as the programme seeks to cover the inability of MSMEs to pay workers salary, owing to the massive disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic.
As entrepreneurs, the primary challenge is that some of the staff of the SMEs collected the money and absconded. That sum if it’s the SMEs the government is targeting to help should have been sent to the companies account.