The Federal Government announced that up to 4 million MSMEs have benefitted from N150 billion worth of Federal Government support schemes to small businesses.
This was disclosed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in a statement by his media aide, Laolu Akande after the vice president’s keynote speech at the Bank of Industry (BOI) Aid for Productivity report launch.
The report chronicled the development, impact, and future of the BOI’s Growth Platform, which is the human and technology infrastructure used to drive multiple large-scale intervention programmes for micro, small and medium enterprises.
What the VP is saying about the schemes
The Vice President said the report revealed the progress the FG has made in solving the challenges of MSMEs. He added that the success of the BOI Growth Platform was the story of “the Nigerian can-do spirit and the entrepreneurial DNA we carry.”
“This is an example of what we can achieve when we unleash the best of our people – especially our young – on the toughest of our challenges, and give them the free-hand to deliver result
“This demographic was far too important to ignore.
“We had to start solving for them, especially having been left far behind historically a reason that led to the implementation of intervention schemes through the BOI’s Growth Platform for MSMEs.
“What might also not be obvious is the sheer scale of impact that has been achieved with these programmes, as over four million MSMEs have been direct beneficiaries of the over N150 billion deployed in the past five years.”
The Vice President also revealed that up to 57 per cent of the MSMEs were owned by Nigerians below 35 years of age, and close to 60 per cent of the beneficiaries were women, adding that the team of Nigerian professionals behind this work is largely young, with an average age of 28 years old.
The vice president also praised the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for providing the much-needed early support to BOI Bank to build the operation to the present large scale.
What you should know about the schemes
- The BOI Growth Platform includes interventions schemes such as the renowned Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) loans (MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni) – regarded as Africa’s largest fully-digitized micro-credit scheme.
- Others are the MSME Survival Fund under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), the North-East Rehabilitation Fund, the recently launched World Bank 750 million dollars NG-CARES programme, and state-based interventions.
In case you missed it
Recall Nairametrics reported on November last year that Federal Government announced it has disbursed the sum of N56.8 billion to 835,161 beneficiaries under the MSME Survival Fund scheme.
