MSME Survival Fund: PDO invigorates Payment hope on Easter Message to Nigerians

While hope seems to have been lost among the applicants of the N75Billion MSME Survival Funds Scheme, the Project Delivery Office of the Scheme has in an Easter Message assured Nigerians to keep hope alive on the programme.

The PDO wrote:

"Easter reminds us that hope must never be lost, for as dark as the road may seem, there always lies light at the end of it. You truly deserve all the Easter blessing."

The MSME Survival Fund Project Delivery Office had in several tweets encouraged applicants of the Scheme to exercise some patience as payment for the programme has not ended, assuring that all "verified" applicants of the Scheme would be paid in no distant time.

The PDO however has not mentioned any fixed date when the payment would be made to the numerous applicants awaiting their payments contrary to a widely circulated rumour peddled by fake MSME Survival Fund Twitter handles, creating tension and confusion among the applicants.

According to a recent reports from the Federal Government, 64,395 businesses have been verified and 320,678 employees paid the N30,000 -N50,000 three months salary Supports out of the 500,000 employees beneficiaries targeted under the Payrol Supports Track of the Scheme across the country.

Also, over 146,811 transport sector beneficiaries and 114,557 artisans beneficiaries have been paid the N30,000 one-off grant each out of the 333,000 beneficiaries targeted under the Artisan/Transport Track across the country while 100,000 Businesses have so far been freely registered by the Corporate Affairs Commision out of the 250,000 beneficiaries targeted under the Formalisation Supports Track.

The N75Billion MSME Survival Fund Scheme is a grant scheme and one of the several ways the Federal Government has employed to reduce the effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through the National Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP)

The Scheme encompasses the Payroll Supports Track where 500,000 MSME Employees would be paid N30,000 - N50,000 Salary Supports for three months. Others are the Free Business Registration (Formalisation Supports) to 250,000 Nigerians; the N30,000 one-off grant to 333,000 Artisans/Transporters under Artisans/Transport Supports Track; One time N50,000 Grant to 100,000 MSMEs under the General Grant Track and the bulk product purchase from 100,000 MSMEs under the Guranteed Offtake Scheme.