The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has flagged off its Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS) to small business owners in Bauchi State.
Some 1,800 persons selected from the 20 local government areas of the state are expected to benefit from the scheme in the state.
The Scheme was launched at the Multipurpose Indoor Sports Hall in Bauchi Saturday by the Director General (DG) of the agency, Dr Dikko Umaru Radda.
In his address, the DG SMEDAN said the federal introduced the scheme to help people in the micro enterprises sub sector which he said provides employment more than the other sub sectors of the economy.
According to him, the National MSMEs revealed that, there are 17,261,753 micro enterprises in 2010 representing 99.80 percent and 36,994,578 representing 99.87 percent in 2013.
He disclosed that, the subsector employed 15,641,460 in 2010 representing 90.41 percent of the total people employed.
The DG added that, the sector also employed 57,836,391 in 2013 representing 96.88 percent of the total number of people employed.
Radda noted that, the micro enterprises sector being informal and being run by people at the bottom of the pyramid, prompted SMEDAN to conceptualise a flagship programme of Conditional Grant Scheme for micro enterprises.
“The justification for a special entrepreneurship/Vocational development intervention for the entrepreneurs at the bottom at the pyramid cannot be over emphasised based on the need to graduate informal enterprises to the formal sector, industrialised the nation, develop the rural economy, stem youth restiveness and unemployment and create the platform for sustainable economic growth and development in Nigeria,” he said.
