The Federal Government of Nigeria commenced nationwide registration of potential beneficiaries of two MSMEs initiatives namely, the MSME Survival Fund with the Payroll support track as the first scheme to rollout N60 billion and the Guaranteed Offtake Scheme N15 billion to help cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with a view to boosting the economy by saving existing jobs and creating new job opportunities. According to the federal government the MSME Survival Fund is a conditional grant to support vulnerable micro and small enterprises in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard Jobs in the MSMEs sector. It said the the scheme is estimated to save not less than 1.3million jobs across the country and specifically impact on over 35,000 individuals per state.
The scheme according to the FG will be implemented over an initial period of three months in order to provide immediate relief from the economic impact of the pandemic. It said “The scheme targets two categories of beneficiaries namely; employees of MSMEs and Self-employed individuals. Both schemes have made provision for a 45% female business participation and special needs participation of 5%. Those to benefit from the scheme include employees’ company which must be registered in Nigeria under the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC; must have BVN by company CEO; must have a staff strength of no less than 3 persons; must be owned by a Nigerian.
“The self-employed individuals in the following categories are to benefit from the scheme; service providers in the transportation sector, i.e. bus drivers, taxi drivers, ride share drivers. (Uber, Bolt Taxify etc) and Mechanics; artisans, electricians plumbers and others. Payroll Support is of N500,000 to vulnerable MSMEs in meeting payroll obligations of between N30,000 to N50,000 per employee over 3 months; formalisation Support which provides free CAC Business Name registration for 250,000 new businesses; General Grant that will Support the survival of 100,000 businesses most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with N50,000 each; artisan/Transport Support that provide 333,000 artisans and transport business operators with a N30,000 operations grant to reduce the effects of income loss and guaranteed Offtake Scheme that will bulk purchase of products from 100,000 MSMEs to protect jobs and livelihood
“The guaranteed off-take stimulus scheme will protect and sustain the income of vulnerable Micro and Small Enterprises from the economic disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic through the implementation of various initiatives aimed at boosting the production capacities of the small businesses as well as provision of grants. The main objective of this particular scheme is to boost production capabilities of small businesses with the view to ensuring that they remain in business
The duration of implementation will be same as the Payroll Support Target Registration for Payroll Support Begins on 21st September 2020”.
