SPENDING the sum of N1 trillion annually on the poor can eradicate poverty and make a significant change in the nation’s economy, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has observed.
He made the observation at the 9th Presidential Quarterly Business Forum at the old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday, saying that government was working through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to improve the business environment.
He noted that the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) clinics carried out across the country have recorded great successes.
The Vice President said: “If we spend N1 trillion to bail out the poor in this country every year, we will make a massive difference.”
ALSO READ: Akinlade will succeed me, Amosun insists
He assured that job creation was has a top priority of the present administration, adding that the surest way to create jobs was through the provision of an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.
He further said: “Job creation has been a priority of this administration and this I must say is not just in words. In analysing the solutions, we were clear that the surest way of creating jobs is by enabling the private sector to do business easily, so that opportunities are created in Agriculture and the agro-allied industry, services, manufacturing etc but we realised that that would not solve the immediate problems of thousands of graduates who have no jobs or the millions who are at the bottom of the trading pyramid barely eking out a living.
“This, we believed created a compelling argument for direct intervention by government.
“Our preferred approach has been a practical one. So while we worked through the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) to improve the business environment, and worked on several sector based incentivization schemes, we also undertook a hands-on approach to getting MSMEs working.”
He also said that government has expanded the micro credit to small businesses, under the Government Empowerment & Enterprise Programme (GEEP).
Osinbajo stated: “N15.183 billion in interest-free loans ranging from N50,000 to N350,000 have been disbursed to more than 300,000 market women, traders, artisans, farmers across all 36 States of the country and the FCT. (By the way, 56% of the loans have gone to women).
“We took the view that since the largest number of small businesses in Nigeria are the market women and men and petty traders, we needed to expand the opportunities in these categories.
“Our energizing economies project is putting power especially solar power in markets and commercial clusters. We have powered Ariara Market, Aba; Sabongari Market, Kano; Sura market in Lagos, Isinkan market in Ondo, Bola Ige market in Ibadan, Oyo State and Edaiken market in Benin, Edo State.
“So there are actual interactions with the small businesses. Our focus has been to ensure that the regulators understand their role as facilitators not an obstacle to business. We are also establishing one-stop shops in the States, where all regulators are under the same roof in the States.”
Continuing, he said, “The N-Power programme is the largest post-tertiary jobs project in Africa placing 500,000 young people in existing teaching jobs and also identifying new roles they could fill in the health and agriculture sectors.
“Some of our N-power graduates are also being employed as enumerators for data collection and research because of the new skills they have gained. In addition to these 500,000 N Power graduates, we have 20,000 non graduates working and learning as part of the N Build programme in various construction, the automotive and technology sectors.”
According to him, government has empowered two million petty traders under the Trader Moni scheme which he explained: “enables them to draw further credit if they are able to pay back within six months.
“By giving them credit to replenish and increase their inventories, we give them a stronger chance, to earn more, while they also service the value chain that they are a part of.
“But more importantly, we bring them into the formal sector, where they have access to government and private credit and we lift more permanently out of poverty.
“An important feature of the program is financial inclusion. GEEP has led to the opening of 349,000 new bank accounts/wallets for beneficiaries and intending beneficiaries.”
and then