Group to Empower 27,000 SME Business Owners

• Group to Empower 27,000 SME Business Owners

A group, the Visioned Skills Development Centre, says it has begun empowerment of about 27,000 people engaged in the Small and Medium Enterprises across the country through the provision of grant.

The grant, which was given to the beneficiaries, is between N250,000 and N10m.

The Chief Executive Officer of the group, Mr Israel Kama, who spoke with journalists during a one-day seminar for the general public in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Saturday, explained that the bottom-up project strategy grant was sponsored by Social Exchange Market.

He said the empowerment programme was introduced to Nigerian businessmen and women in a bid to support the government in empowering the citizenry economically.

Kama, who commended the initiative of the Federal Government at empowering the youth through various schemes, especially the N-Power, said the schemes could not take adequate care of all Nigerians and that there was a need for government to be supported.

He said, “We are determined to make people grow economically; we are determined to impact on the lives of the people through our intervention programmes. To this end, we are ready to fund businesses from N250,000 to N10m through the grant which will be paid back within an appreciable period of time.”

Kama expressed assurance that all individuals who had applied for the grant would be duly considered, saying the disbursement of the money would commence before the end of this year.

He further explained that the group would source for the grant for the beneficiaries of the scheme through SEM and monitor the business done with the grant by the beneficiaries to ensure that the purpose for which it was given was justified.

He also stated that the group had gathered entrepreneurs across the country to train beneficiaries of the grant in various entrepreneurial skills, adding that the organisation had been encouraging various programmes aimed at developing small and medium-scale businesses to enable Nigerians to be economically independent.

He, however, dispelled insinuations that the scheme was a scam, saying that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission was fully aware of the activities of the group.