The sum of N465 million has been approved by the Enugu State Executive Council as its counterpart fund for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development in the state.
Disclosing this to newsmen at the end of the State Executive Council meeting held in Enugu on Wednesday, the Commissioner for Information in the state, Chuks Ugwoke said the amount represented 0.5 per cent of the state’s 2014 budget in compliance with the 2010 SME law.
He posited that the Bank of Industry (BOI) would merge the money with the Federal Governments’ contribution and then distribute it to SME operators in the state.
Ugwoke informed that the council equally approved N600 million for the implementation of the 2014 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Conditional Grant Scheme projects in six local government areas of the state.
He pointed out that the projects would cover health, education, water and sanitation as well as agro and processing businesses and listed the benefiting local government areas as Enugu North, Enugu South, Udenu, Igboeze North, Nkanu East and Aninri LGA.
His words, “the implementation of MDG projects is a tripartite arrangement between the Federal, Enugu State Governments and the benefitting council areas.
“Federal Government contributes 50 per cent, state will get 30 per cent representing N600million while the benefitting LGA will contribute 20 per cent which also represents N400 million,” he noted.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr Jude Akubuilo, stressed that the benefiting SMEs must meet BOI criteria to be able to access the funds.
He asserted that the governor approved the waiving of the interest rate for the state governments’ component of the fund so as to boost small businesses in the state, adding that “for one to five million naira, you do not need guarantors but from N5 million to N10million, you will get guarantors.”
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