Governor of Gombe State Inuwa Yahaya yesterday flagged off the distribution of N500 million as support grants to various business groups in the state to help them rebuild their businesses and overcome the effect of recession occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The gesture came under the Gombe State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus, GO-CARES, an intervention programme of the state government.
At the ceremony, the governor said, his administration was fully committed to addressing socio-economic challenges affecting the people of the state which was the idea behind the domestication of the Nigerian COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus, NG-CARES of the Federal Government in Gombe State where more than N8.5 billion was budgeted to support 288,700 households, farmers, small scale businesses across the nooks and crannies of the state to mitigate and cushion the adverse effects of COVID-19.
He said since the flag-off of the programme in July last year, GO-CARES spent about N3.4 billion through various interventions and relief packages reaching thousands of vulnerable families and businesses.
“So far, 147, 666 indigenes of Gombe State have benefitted from the GO-CARES and many more will come onboard as many packages are underway,” he noted.
The governor presented a cheque of N500million to the representatives of over 100 business communities, assuring that the distribution starts immediately.
According to him, the grant is not a loan but an empowerment to the beneficiaries and was aimed at revitalizing businesses in the state.
On behalf of the benefiting groups, the chairman of Inter-Local Markets Traders Association Sunusi Abdullahi Mai Agogo, the chairperson of Women in Business, Dr Eliza Danladi, Uba Abdullahi, chairman of Amalgamated Traders Association Abba Bill Gates said Governor Inuwa has fulfilled promises he made to support business communities, saying that they are grateful for the gesture and will make good use of the grants.
They pledged their continued solidarity with the governor and to pay him back handsomely in the forthcoming elections for the sustainability of the interventions and in the interest of the state.
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