FG disburses N10bn MSMEs survival fund in Lagos, Kano, others

The Federal Government on Tuesday disbursed N10 billion to artisans who applied under the Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) survival fund.

The Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum who is the Chairperson, Steering Committee on survival fund and guarantee off-take schemes, said the. approval was made last week and the Ministry of Finance knowing how important the money is needed made it available immediately.

According to her, approval for the month of November is N10 billion, which is for the payroll of artisans, stressing that as this payment is going on, registration by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) is also ongoing to ensure those not captured now will be captured for next payment.

“Again, by the time we come to brief Nigerians next week the information will change because we plan to pay the artisans weekly instead of monthly. Right now all we are concentrating on is to pay the October salary support, once we are done with October payment, November and December will be easy to handle.

“The white list of beneficiaries fully verified for disbursement and payments to the approved block of beneficiaries have also commenced and disbursements have been approved for a total of 16,253 MSMEs businesses accounting for a total of 101,567 beneficiaries.

” N30,000 was paid to each of the 94,696 employees/beneficiaries while N50,000 was paid to each of the 6,871 employees/beneficiaries. 2.6per cent of the beneficiaries are people with special needs while 43per cent of the total beneficiaries are women in line with the guidelines on disbursement,” she said.

The minister said the disbursements for Payroll Support commenced last week and it is ongoing presently across the country.

“However, due to the inability of some states to meet their targets, the portal will be reopened to accommodate such states. Other milestones achieved under this track are the verification for payment of 101,567 beneficiaries sourced from 16,253 businesses as at 17th Nov 2020. The distribution of beneficiaries across the country include Lagos State, 25,000; Kano, 17,000; Abia,16,000 and13,000 for every other state,” the minister stated.