Women, youths tasked on N220bn SME fund

By CALEB AYANSINA

WIFE of former Governor of Kogi State and United Nations (UN) Ambassador for the Promotion of Peace, Education and Poverty Reduction, Amb. Aisha Audu-Emeje, has urged women and youth to grab the opportunity, provided by the N220b Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) fund, to improve their businesses.
The fund, launched by the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was targeted at reducing poverty in the country.

She maintained that having access to fund was not the problem in some cases, but packaging,  calling on them to immediately form cooperatives to enable them access the fund, to enlarge their businesses.

Audu-Emeje, who gave the advice after she was conferred with the Companionship Award by the Institute of Global Facilities Management, in Abuja, disclosed that she had mobilised over 10,000 women farmers in Kogi State for the purpose of getting them into cooperatives, to access the fund.

“This fund has been hanging in the CBN since the late Yar’ Adua’s administration and the president has been able to push it out, we are now at a stage where advocacy is being done, so that those that are supposed to access this fund can prepare themselves and know how to access it.

- Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com