Kano State tops FG’s ₦75bn MSME Survival Fund application with 16,880 in 24hrs

Ministry of and Investment has released the list of top applicants for its ₦75 billion National MSME Survival Fund with Kano topping other states with 16,880 applicants within 24 hours of opening the porter. The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum disclosed this Thursday at a media briefing to provide an update on the National MSME Survival Fund and the Guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Schemes under the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP).

The Minister explained that the scheme is a cluster of grants intended to support vulnerable micro and small enterprises in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs within the MSME space from the shock of the Covid19 Pandemic. 

“The program is to save over One Million, Seven Hundred Thousand (1,700,000) jobs,” she said. Special focus will be given to 45 percent female owned MSME’s and 5 percent special needs owned MSME’s and give grants to self-employed individuals especially service providers like Bus drivers, Taxi drivers, ride share drivers and artisans such as electricians and plumbers. She said the scheme will be implemented along the payroll support which targets 500,000 individual beneficiaries. The scheme will support MSME payroll obligations by paying between N50,000 (max) and N30,000 (min) to between 3 (min) and 10 (max) staff for 3 months. MSMEs in this category are required to have a minimum of 3 and maximum of 50 Staff on their payroll to qualify,” the Minister said. 

She added that the Target Beneficiaries scheme will support MSMEs in the Hospitality industry, Private Schools, Factory owners, Law Firms, Hospitals among others. There is also the General MSME Grant which will give N50,000 to 100,000 MSMEs. She said portal open for applications on September 21, 2020 at 11:00pm and within the first 24 hours approximately 138,000 individuals had logged on, created profiles, and completed the first stage of registration with Kano, Kaduna, and Lagos as the lead states. “All successful applicants received SMS and email verification with a list of requirements for the second stage of application which will commence on 1/10/2020. Applicants will be required to upload details supporting their applications which will be verified and if successful, approved for disbursements,” she said.

The following states recorded the highest number of applications in the first 24hrs of registration: Kano – 16,880, Kaduna – 11,438, Lagos – 10, 530, Katsina – 7,354 and Bauchi – 6,622 applicants.  She said that as at 8.30am Thursday morning, total successful registrations stood at 174,574 with the following states having the highest applications as follows: Kano: 19,895, Kaduna:13,575, Lagos: 13,640, Katsina: 8,383 and FCT: 8,085  Registration for other tracks will start as follows: Hospitality industry 25/09/2020 – 10:00AM, Payroll Support (others) 28/09/2020 – 10:00AM, and Artisan/Transport Grants 1/10/2020.  She said “Some states and local governments that have low access to network connectivity and internet services are experiencing delays with registration. However, we also have feedback that State Governments and trade associations are putting in place innovative strategies to deal with the situation.

“Focal Persons of these states (and all other states) are encouraged to continue with their sensitisation efforts; all states need to be equally represented in the Scheme.= The PDO has received reports of some attempted cyber-attacks on the application website. We would like to assure the public that the application system is secure with multiple levels of encryption and any information loaded on the official application page is safe from cyber-attacks of any kind. We would however like to draw the attention of the public to attempts by scammers and other undesirable elements to swindle innocent Nigerians with promises of assured disbursements for a fee. The Survival Fund will not at any time or for any reason request payment or facilitation fees to access the Grants.  The public is encouraged to report any such nefarious activities to the nearest security agents and follow up with a report to the PDO via the mediums provided on the website.”