The Nigerian government says it is offering small-scale businesses N50 billion to support their growth and capacity building. President Bola Tinubu approved the N50 billion lifeline to give to about one million NANO businesses across the country, with each beneficiary receiving N50,000 under the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (SMEDAN) program.
The government categorizes a NANO business as “having at least three employees with a turnover of less than three million Naira”—Nigeria’s local currency.
The fund’s goal is to enable small businesses to unlock access to more funds and build wealth, ultimately complementing the nation’s economic growth and improving its well-being.
The SMEDAN Director-General, Mr. Charles Odii, was in Aniocha, headquarters of Delta North Local Government, to launch the program on Friday. He advised against viewing the special empowerment program from the prism of politics or other narrow considerations.
“Poverty does not know the political party, sex, or age; a hungry man is an angry man,” Mr. Odii said. “There is often this undesirable triangle that I’d like to illustrate: hunger leads to anger, and anger leads to violence. This is the reason why we have a lot of youth unrest.”
“My appeal to everyone is simple: government should not weaponize poverty, but let’s reach out to our young people and small businesses and grow them,” he said.
The SMEDAN D-G expressed the hope that the state governments and other stakeholders would collaborate with the agency to attain the empowerment program’s objective of developing capacity of small businesses across Nigeria.
The beneficiaries were said to have been selected through a rigorous scrutinizing process. The program has has covered 14 of 36 states of Nigeria so far.
Some attendees at Friday’s event confirmed they had received N50,000 into their bank accounts.
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