Minister Empowers Cross River Entrepreneurs With N500m Grant

The minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, yesterday launched a N500 million grant for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Cross River State.

This initiative, known as the Senator John Owan Enoh Intervention Programme for Enterprises and MSMEs, aims to support entrepreneurs and artisans in the state.

The former lawmaker at the National Assembly announced this during a media parley in Calabar.

The minister stated that it is important that Cross River State is able to build its private sector and create a cadre of entrepreneurs.

The minister said, “The world over, industry and entrepreneurship are the greatest employers of labour.

“This is a personal project, my contribution to the ecosystem. A grant and not a loan. It’s not for politics and is intended to grow the economy and get people to do better.

“We are targeting 1,000 Cross Riverians and we hope they will be able to join the pool of 40 million MSME in Nigeria.”

Enoh stated that beneficiaries of the grant would undergo training before getting the grant stressing that the intervention is his little contribution to complement the President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and Governor Bassey Otu’s People First Mantra aimed at economic growth and self-reliance for the people.

Giving insight on those who would qualify to access the grant, technical partner for the initiative and publisher of Overwatch, an online news media, Agba Jalingo, stated that entrepreneurs in both formal and informal sectors would be eligible for the grant.

Jalingo stressed that those in the formal sector will apply through a proposal on a dedicated website and successful applicants will be eligible to access between N100,000 and N500,000.

He said that residents of the state in the informal sector will apply through a form which would be taken to the 18 LGAs across the three senatorial districts of the state.

Jalingo averred that there would be no disparity, adding that anyone who is a resident and doing business in the state would be eligible.

Senator Enoh added that arrangements were in top gear to launch an Automotive Training Centre at the University of Education and Entrepreneurship in Akamkpa LGA of the state to make youths in the state become self-reliant rather than roam the streets of the nation searching for jobs that may be hard to come by.