*1.7m to 2m MSMEs to benefit overall from Survival Fund & other schemes
*Half a million to benefit from Payroll Support alone
*333, 000 Artisans & Transport workers to get grants
*250,000 free Business Name Registration
*Over 300,000 MSMEs to get another 15B in Guaranteed Off-take

As more Nigerians and small businesses register for the recently launched Survival Fund scheme of the Federal Government, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described progress recorded in the first three days of the registration of applicants as massive and impressive, reiterating the commitment of the Buhari administration to ensure effective implementation of all the schemes.

The Vice President stated this yesterday during a virtual interactive session by the Africa Report magazine which focused on Nigeria’s post-pandemic recovery plan also referred to as ‘Bouncing Back’.

Responding to a question on the implementation of the various schemes under the ESP for small and medium businesses, the Vice President said the response by Nigerians to the recently launched Survival Fund was massive and assured that the government remained committed to effective implementation of the scheme.
More and more potential beneficiaries are going online to access the N60 billion Survival Fund whose registration started on Monday.

According to him, “a couple of days ago, the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment launched the Survival Fund. The Fund includes a Payroll Support for about 500, 000 beneficiaries and the plan is to take qualifying businesses who have a minimum of 10 employees and pay salaries of those staff for three months.

“The portal was opened about three days ago and there has been massive response to it. Payroll Support is one important way that we intend to support small scale businesses. We are also giving artisans and transporters, grants to support their businesses and it will cover about 333, 000 of such artisans and transporters.”

Continuing, the Vice President said “there is also a free business name registration that we are doing for 250, 000 persons who wish to register their businesses.”

Referring specifically to the expected impact of the schemes on MSMEs, the Vice President said “we are looking at 1.3 million beneficiaries under the Survival Fund and under the artisans and transporters grants. Then we have a Guaranteed Off-take Scheme. Under this programme, basically, if you manufacture certain items and food products, we will buy them from you. Our target is about 300, 000 of such producers of foods. Both schemes will benefit about 1.7 million individuals and small businesses.”

Speaking further about the effective implementation of the schemes, the Vice President said measures are being put in place to ensure that the target beneficiaries are impacted positively.

Read more: https://www.chronicle.ng/2020/09/n60bn-survival-fund-registration-osinbajo/