The Federal Government of Nigeria, in the last five years, has disbursed N150 billion to boost four million businesses across the country.
The business empowerment was done through the federal government schemes set up for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo says.
Osinbajo stated this on Monday, in a statement issued by his Spokesperson, Laolu Akande while delivering his keynote speech at the Bank of Industry (BOI) ‘Aid for Productivity Report’ launch.
He noted that the support for the MSMEs sector amounts to 50% of Nigeria’s GDP and 76% of the country’s labour force.
The vice-president pointed out that the sector attained success due to the diligence and commitment of Nigerians which he described as ‘the Nigerian can-do spirit and the entrepreneurial DNA we carry.’
Impressed with the results derived, Osinbajo commended the youths who took advantage of the MSMEs schemes to grow their business.
“This is a shining case study of what President Muhammadu Buhari strongly believes– that Nigerians will solve Nigeria’s problems.
“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 results.
“What might also not be obvious is the sheer scale of impact that has been achieved with these programmes, as over four million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises have been direct beneficiaries of the over N150 billion deployed in the past five years,” he said.
Disclosing the statistics of the beneficiaries, Osinbajo said 57% of the businesses are owned by Nigerians below 35 years, and 60% of the beneficiaries are women.
He added that the team of Nigerian professionals solidly backing the work are youths with an average age of 28 years.
Osinbajo, who had earlier visited Kaduna and conversed with a Tradermoni scheme beneficiary during its launch in the state, expressed satisfaction on the impact of the scheme.
He said the beneficiary, Jafar Abubakar who sells ginger and garlic was one of the 5,000 traders who got ₦10,000 to improve his business.
“This is perhaps for me one of the most satisfying things about the way our social intervention schemes are deployed. That there is a platform that can process applications from potential beneficiaries, payout credits or other benefits, and maintain auditable records seamlessly. It is those people and infrastructure that make this happen that we are celebrating today.”
The vice president hinted that the idea was birthed 6 years ago with the aim of building systems that will serve the population fairly and justly, bringing credibility to government programmes.
He, however, mentioned that one of the hindrances encountered was directly reaching the people, to capture and digitize their bio-data as well as get their benefits across to them directly in a transparent way.
Osinbajo lauded the infrastructure and transparency behind the BOI Growth schemes.
He also commended Toyin Adeniji, executive director of BOI and Uzoma Nwagba, the chief operating officer; the co-authors of the ‘Aid for Productivity’ report presented at the launch.
