THE Vice-President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, will on Feb. 13 inaugurate Marketmoni/Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Clinics in Kogi under the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP).

Mr Adoga Ibrahim, the Special Adviser to Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi on Multilateral Donor Agencies and Special Projects/Focal Person on Social Investment Programme, made this known in Lokoja, on Thursday.

Ibrahim said that Osinbajo would launch the MSME Clinics on Feb.13 to serve as delivery tool for the development and escalation of small and medium enterprises across Nigeria, including Kogi.

He said that there would be training, capacity building, collaborative and interactive programme to assist the small scale businesses.

Ibrahim said that the MSME clinic would attract over 27 parastatals associated with the growth of small and medium enterprises and open up opportunities for various businesses in the state.

“The parastatal agencies include: BOI, BOA, CAC, FIRS, CBN, NAFDAC, CPC, SON, SMEDAN and all commerce-related organisations.

“The registration started recently and we already have about 105 businesses that have registered.

“We are building structure, platforms and foundation that will enable the small and medium businesses to have confidence in what they are doing and grow their businesses.

“It is 70 per cent for women and 30 per cent for men. The small and medium enterprises will interact and showcase their businesses to the parastatals which will find a way of supporting them.

“The vice-president will also use the visit to get the first hand information on the progress made so far in the implementation of various social investment programmes in the state.

“We will disburse additional loans of N50,000 to 7,000 people each on Feb. 13 under the GEEP/Marketmoni programme to enable the beneficiaries to boost their businesses or start new ones.

“These people have been pre-qualified, their data obtained and forwarded to Bank of Industry (BoI) and accounts opened for them,” Ibrahim said.

The focal person added that about 20,000 beneficiaries of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) in Kogi were already getting a total of N100 million monthly. (NAN)

– Feb. 8, 2018 @ 20:35 GMT |