The House of Representatives Committee on Small and Medium Enterprises on Friday met with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Wale Edun, on key aspects of implementation of the presidential palliatives grants and loans.

The committee’s Chairman, Mansur Soro, who led the team to ascertain the extent of funding and releases so far made to implementing Ministries, Departments and Agencies, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists on Saturday through his Personal Assistant, Aleeyu Darazo.

The House Committee on SMEs had previously met with other top government officials including the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs Doris Anite; the Accountant-General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Medein; as well as the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Charles Odii, in this regard.

The statement read in part, “The 10th House of Representatives under the leadership of Tajudden Abbas places a high premium on SMEs development, hence its decision to create a standing committee on SMEs to ensure effective oversight of the SMEs activities and programs of line MDAs.

“The presidential palliative grants and loans which come in three tranches of N50,000 grants to N1 million nano businesses, N100,000 – N1 million and N75 billion to manufacturers, are due for disbursement anytime soon.”

President Bola Tinubu had in July ordered the implementation of palliatives to cushion the effects of the removal of petrol subsidy across the agriculture, transportation, social safety and SME sectors of the economy.

punchng.com