Facebook Announces $100m Grants, Ad Credits for SMEs

• Facebook Announces $100m Grants, Ad Credits for SMEs

Facebook Inc, the world’s leading social media giant, announced it would offer grants and ad credits worth $100 million to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as the world battles coronavirus outbreak.

The social media giant disclosed that the assistance would be disbursed to 30,000 SMEs across around 30 countries. Representing an average of $3,333 per business.

Facebook said, in a blog post announcing the grant, “We know that your business may be experiencing disruptions resulting from the global outbreak of COVID-19. We’ve heard that a little financial support can go a long way, so we are offering $100M in cash grants and ad credits to help during this challenging time.”

It was reported that the majority of the businesses would get a cash grant.

Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, also stated on her Facebook page that the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak on small businesses with limited operating capital would be severe during this period.

She said “We’ve listened to small businesses to understand how we can best help them. We’ve heard loud and clear that financial support could enable them to keep the lights on and pay people who can’t come to work.”

She added that with this, small businesses would be able to pay rent, cover operational costs like Facebook ads and other necessary operations. Facebook also plans to offer support for small businesses through training from its team.

In Nigeria, the central bank has lowered interest rates on intervention facilities to small businesses from 9 percent to 5 percent to help them navigate the current situation. Also, on Wednesday the apex bank announced it would inject N1.1 trillion into the economy to help manufacturers and the health sector.

Nations are working on reducing the impacts of the ravaging coronavirus on their economy, especially with most businesses shutting down operations to curb the spread of the virus.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday announced flight restrictions on 13 nations and on the same day, Arik air suspended flight operations to West Coast destinations.