Gov Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Monday pledged adequate support to Micro Small Enterprises (MSEs) toward wealth creation and economic growth of the State.
Our Kogi State Correspondent, reports that the governor gave the assurance during the distribution of Information Communication, Technology (ICT) enhancement business toolkits to Micro Small Enterprises (MSEs) in the State at Government House.
Represented by Mrs Folashade Arike-Ayoade, Secretary to the Government, Bello said that the distribution was in fulfilment of the Kogi State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (KG-CARES) programme, Result Area 3, under the ICT enhancement grants.
According to him, the programme being anchored by Kogi Enterprise Development Agency (KEDA) was also aimed at supporting benefitting Enterprises to embrace technology for business sustainability and economic development of the state.
He tasked the 100 beneficiary MSEs to make prudent and judicious use of the enhancement tools to boost their businesses and path way way for more incentives.
"From my understanding 50, 000 MSEs applied for the incentives but only 100 scaled through for this phase I but with time more will be captured in the next phase, " he said.
He said the government would set up a monitoring committee that would go round beneficiaries to ensure that all the enhancement tools were being put to use as expected.
Earlier, KEDA Managing Director/CEO, Hajiya Rekiya Onaivo-Sanni appreciated the commitment of governor to strategically reposition the MSE sector for improved productivity.
Onaivo-Sanni explained that the project was in tandem with the cardinal objectives of the current administration, and that it shall go round the MSEs in all the 21 LGAs of the state.
The MD cautioned the beneficiaries not resell or give out the tools given to them and keep their records for monitoring agencies from world Bank and state government so as not to loose their positions.
She advised all interested applicants to ensure that they strictly apply on line else they would not be considered nor benefit from the incentives.
"We are on 3.2 IBA and 3.3 IBA of the incentives in which N23 million has been disbursed to beneficiaries. Interested applicants can benefit from both sets (3.2IBA and 3.3 IBA), " she said.
It was that some of the tools distributed include: mobile tablets, printers, projectors, Personal Computers, Desktop, UPS, Point of Sale machines, Wi-Fi devices.