Kwara Targets 2,000 Beneficiaries For EU-UNDP’s N200m MSMEs’ Fund

A total of 2,000 cluster-based businesses are being targeted across the 16 local government areas of Kwara State to receive N100,000 each from the N200 million Micro, Small and Medium Size Enterprises (MSMEs) support from the European Union (EU) with implementation from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The disbursement of the fund was designed to help grow businesses and mitigate the adverse effects of hardship that assailed small scale businesses in Nigeria.

A monitoring and evaluation team of UNDP, which arrived in Ilorin, yesterday toured different parts of the state to ascertain the veracity of the disbursement and beneficiaries of the fund.

A representative of UNDP, Joyce Oburu, said the team was in the state to obtain firsthand data on the beneficiaries to ensure that the fund meets the right target.
Oburu disclosed that each of the beneficiaries of the grant would receive N100,000 to enhance small scale businesses in the state.

“We are here in Kwara State to do validation of data set that we have received from the SDG office on a project that is being implemented by UNDP funded by the EU for MSME support titled ‘Enhancing the Capacity of MSMEs Through Cluster-based Approach”.

“This project is packaged as an economic support to MSMEs in the state. It has different layers that we hope to implement. The first layer is cash grant of N100,000 for about 2000 MSMEs (operators). This fund has been disbursed, and we have come here to see for ourselves that the beneficiaries are real people actually doing businesses in the areas that we were informed they were doing businesses.

“We have come here to do that verification, and the next step after this exercise, there will be a training exercise because training, mentorship and coaching is part of the package for this project. The SDG has informed us that 99 percent of the beneficiaries have received their fund from UNDP project support by the EU”, she said.

In her remarks, the senior special assistant to the governor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mrs Mariam Imma, explained that the beneficiaries, mostly in need of help, were selected from the three senatorial districts in the state.

She said the choice of cluster-based businesses was to save them from imminent collapse on account of the current hardship in the land.