The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in Collaboration with the Borno State Government has launched the Nigerian Government’s 2021 Nationwide Conditional Grant Scheme.
The Scheme has targeted about 2,160 beneficiaries with each getting 50, 000 to enable small scale entrepreneurship combined with capacity building, workspace, technology and delivery of post-intervention support services
The Borno State Governor Professor Babagana while given his address during the flag off said, “ … the flag off of this very important scheme of 2,160 beneficiaries to the Micro Enterprises platform. It is common knowledge that insurgency in Borno State has brought untold hardship to our people and Small enterprises have suffered the most. The most important thing is not only the disbursement of grants but financial inclusion.
He said the government is committed to creating more employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths and expanding their sources of income, especially the women by reducing the unemployment rate to the barest minimum in the state.
The Governor thanked SMEDAN and the Federal Government for the choice of Borno at the grand opening for 2021.
SMEDAN’s Director-General, Dr. Dikko Umaru Radda, said the agency chose Borno State as the focal point of the flag off for the entire nation to complement the state’s efforts at transforming the SMSE sector while coping with impacts of crises in the region in the last 12 years.
The DG further explained that the objective of the Scheme includes moving micro-enterprises from the informal to the formal sector, creating jobs, wealth and alleviating poverty in the society which is capable of reducing insecurity in the country.
He further added that the objective also includes enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises towards
meeting national, regional and global standards, improving the internally generated revenue of the three tiers of government across the country; thereby reducing over-dependence on oil revenue and improving the human, technological and financial capacity of operators of micro-enterprises.
E-commerce Platform
The Borno State government also launched the Borno State E-commerce platform developed and adopted by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation during the flag-off of SMEDAN’s conditional grant scheme.
The Borno E-commerce platform was designed by the state’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation on an Android Operating System.
Governor Zulum says, his administration is committed to developing business enterprises in the state, especially through engaging several youths in various employment platforms to make them self-reliant by the disbursement of more than 3 billion naira.
The governor also noted that the administration has invested in many new vocational training centres and has revived old ones to rekindle SMSEs in the state by establishing sustainable businesses of their own.
The governor also announced that a sustainability development agency will be created in the near future with the aim of developing a vanguard for rural industrialization and poverty reduction to enhance the livelihood of the people.
The governor concluded by urging the SMSEs artisans and technicians to register with Borno State E-commerce in order to explore the various economic opportunities and have the knowledge on advertisement and other technologies in order to boost their trade.
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