Over Four Million Nigerians MSMEs Has Benefited From FG Schemes Worth N150billion—Osinbajo

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The Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo has said that over four million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises have benefitted from Federal Government schemes worth over N150bn.

This is as he said the various social intervention schemes of the Buhari regime have made significant impact in the lives of millions of ordinary Nigerians by supporting MSMEs that account for about 50 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and 76 per cent of the country’s labour force.

Osinbajo said this in his keynote address at the Bank of Industry Aid for Productivity report launch at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on Monday

Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media And Publicity disclosed this.

According to the Vice President, the regime’s investment in the MSMEs sector is a shining case study of the President’s belief 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 N150bn deployed in the past five years.

“57 per cent of these MSMEs are owned by Nigerians below 35 years of age, and close to 60 per cent of the beneficiaries are women. What is even less glaring is that the team of Nigerian professionals behind this work is largely young, with an average age of 28 years old.”

Highlighting the transparency and impact of these microcredit schemes, particularly the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme—MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni—under the SIPs, Osinbajo recalled his interaction in 2018 with a petty trader, Jafar Abubakar, one of the Tradermoni beneficiaries at Abubakar Gumi Market in Kaduna when he visited to launch the scheme in the State.

He narrated: “Jafar Abubakar, who trades in ginger and garlic was one of 5,000 or so traders who had just received ₦10,000 to advance his business in that market. What struck me was what he said about how he was selected to get the credit.

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“He said ‘I just applied. I didn’t know anybody. They came here and captured my data last week and I got the alert yesterday.’ Jafar then showed me the alert on his phone. Stories like Jafar’s have become all too familiar to me over these years.”

The Vice President said the TraderMoni scheme, which provides N10,000 interest-free and collateral-free loans to petty traders, mostly with an inventory of less than N5,000, had made a huge positive impact nationwide.

This includes enhancing the small businesses of beneficiaries, improving their families and contributing to the informal economy.

“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, pay out credits or other benefits, maintain auditable records seamlessly. It is those people and infrastructure that make this happen that we are celebrating today,” he noted.

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