President Bola Tinubu has approved N50 billion for small businesses in the country.
This was announced by Tinubu during his nationwide broadcast, where he also spoke on the economy of the nation.
He urged Nigerians to suffer the pain of the reduction of fuel subsidies, telling them that things would improve.
“Our administration recognizes the importance of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and the informal sector as drivers of growth. We are going to energize this very important sector with N125 billion,” he stated.
“Out of the sum, we will spend N50 billion on conditional grants to 1 million nano businesses between now and March 2024. Our target is to give N50,000 each to 1,300 nano business owners in each of the 774 local governments across the country.
“Ultimately, this program will further drive financial inclusion by on boarding beneficiaries into the formal banking system. In like manner, we will fund 100,000 MSMEs and start-ups with N75 billion. Under this scheme, each enterprise promoter will be able to get between N500,000 and N1 million at 9% interest per annum and a repayment period of 36 months.
“To further ensure that prices of food items remain affordable, we have had multi-stakeholder engagement with various farmers’ associations and operators within the agricultural value chain,” he added.