Business

SMEDAN supports 60 BMOs, NGOs with N500,000 grants in Kaduna

Published

3 years ago

October 12, 2021

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) on Tuesday in Kaduna supported 60 Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) with N500,000 grants each.

The Director-General (DG) of SMEDAN, Dr. Dikko Radda, said the grant was to support the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through BMOs, NGOs and trade associations by strengthening their capacities.

The DG, represented by SMEDAN North West Zonal Coordinator, Alhaji Ahmed Madaki, explained that strengthening the capacities of MSMEs in different sectors of the economy through the BMOs and NGOs would reduce business mortality, improve living standards and reduce poverty.

The DG noted that in recent past, over 60 BMOs, NGOs and trade associations with about 600 members had benefited from the programme, which had the objective to enhance their governance structure and general financial management.

“It is also aimed at financial independence of the BMOs and NGOs, with strong resource base for sustainability and effective succession plan.

“The agency is injecting innovative ideas to transform the MSMEs through tailored made programmes designed to combat the alarming rate of unemployment among Nigerians and deal with the negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

Earlier, the Manager, Kaduna Office of SMEDAN, Alhaji Badamasi Barau, said growth and grant strategy being one of the policies of the agency served as multiplier means to people and organizations with larger numbers of membership.

“Calling on them to come and we develop their capacities and also give them grants for their businesses is one of our commitments.

“The grants for NGOs who are non-profit making organizations, will enable them make peoples businesses better”, he said.

One of the BMOs and a beneficiary of the grant, Aminu Lere, who represented the Kaduna Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said the grants would be shared judiciously among the selected MSMEs under their chamber.

“We will share the money to the MSMEs who we know need the grants more, even though some of them are not here at the capacity building, we will go back to the chamber and do the needful.

“As a chamber, we follow up and see progress made by the MSMEs under us, we have a membership of over 1000 businesses, the grant is a step forward in addressing some of the challenges faced by MSMEs, “Lere said

Also, Hajiya Kaltume Kabir, representative of an NGO, Annihilation Poverty for Women and Children Foundation, said the grant would go a long way in assisting their programmes.

“Initially, we funded our programmes with our personal incomes, this grant will enable us enhance the business prospects of the category of business owners we will reach out to,” she said.

It will be recalled that, reports that first phase of the programme took place in Lagos State on Sept. 28 and 30

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Business

FG To Pin Down Ways, Means To Address Liquidity In The System

Published

13 hours ago

April 19, 2024

The Gleamer

Joel Ajayi

In its avowed determination to alleviate the pressure of excess money in the system, the Federal Government has said that it will pin down Ways and Means to deal with the problem of too much liquidity in the system

The Honourable Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, disclosed this in Washington DC, United States of America, while answering questions from journalists shortly
after a meeting with investors at the on-going Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank.

He informed the global gathering that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Administration was fully determined to
pinning down on Ways and Means to alleviate the pressure of the excess money in the system, adding that in the light of this, the fiscal and monetary authorities were also working towards bringing down inflation.

Mr. Edun added that by so doing, the two authorities are working hand in hand to bring down inflation and pressure on price stability and stabilising the exchange rate with the target of bringing down interest rates so that investors can borrow at a more affordable rate with a view to getting the economy going the right direction again.

We need to borrow less and focus more on domestic resource mobilization. We want long-term resources to avoid repayment and refinancing pressures, he said.

The Minister added further that the nation’s tax/GDP was too low, even lower than the African region’s average and that as such, reforms were underway to streamline the number of taxes, deploy technology and implement policies that would double tax revenue in the next three years

At 10 percent to GDP, what should I say? It would appear as if some people are not paying their taxes. Our strategy is to increase the tax revenue without increasing the rate of taxes. We want to deploy technology to make tax collection more efficient.

Our analysis has shown that 90 percent of tax revenue comes from nine tax heads while we have over 80 taxes from federal through states to local councils.
If we eliminate the large number of these taxes and concentrate on the nine that yield the current 90 percent revenue and deploy technology, there will be more efficiency and we will be able to double our tax revenue in about three years, Edun said

He stated further that if we eliminate the large number of taxes and bill people properly, we will gain in terms of the peoples’ willingness to pay and you will collect more revenue. The Minister assured.

While addressing a question on food security, the Minister said that the present administration was dealing with the problem so as to provide farmers’ access to their farms, especially in parts of the country where insecurity has played a major role in reducing food production.

Mr. Wale Edun added that agro clusters were being developed in collaboration with the African Development Bank so as to increase food production in the country.

Alongside the Minister at the meeting were the former Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance Mrs Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Olayemi Cardoso and some other top government officials.

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