Amidst Nigeria's current economic challenges, President Tinubu has announced plans to tackle these challenges by supporting small businesses. The president made this known while addressing Nigerians on Monday evening, where he stated that he had signed four Executive Orders that would suspend and defer the commencement of certain taxes and his government's intentions to spend N75 billion between July 2023 and March 2024 to build up businesses in the manufacturing sector, and about N125 billion to other businesses in informal sectors providing much-needed relief.
Acknowledging the importance of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the informal sectors to the growth of Nigeria's economy, the Tinubu administration has promised to allocate about N125 billion, which about N50 billion would be offered as conditional grants to about one million nano businesses by March 2024 and an additional N75 billion would be used to fund about 100,0oo MSMEs. Likewise, in a bid to improve the market conditions for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing industry, the federal government seeks to pump N75 billion into the industry to invest in about 75 enterprises, each of these selected enterprises will gain access to N1 billion credit at a reasonable interest rate of 9% per annum.
Among its recent reforms and policies by the new administration, many industry actors will look forward to the government's commitment to actualizing its promises as it strives towards building an improved economic future for Nigerians.