It remains incontrovertible that economy suffered as a prey to the strains posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, economies had suffered strains of discomfort which brought in the demands for special interventions as responses to cushion the impacts of the disruptions. The dynamics which trailed the development had introduced new ways and actions to reconfigure patterns of responses calling for policy actions from government authorities as regulators to moderate the economy. The realities consequently, have demanded intervention to develop systemic responses to reconfigure the economy within strategic frameworks to cushion strains capable of crumbling the workings of the system.
The Government in Nigeria since the development have been seen at the course of offering what has been described as palliatives to Small Businesses which appeared to be at the end of been worst hit by the pandemic. The measure as drafted by the Government is classified along the lines of survival funds as grants to cushion the impacts of the strains of the pandemic on economic activities. This was much more in view for the economy which ere the period of the pandemic has been faced with challenges of recession as devaluation of the Naira continues to wax gross, following scarcity of the dollar; a development which itself was borne by intermittent fall in global oil prices.
The clustering of prevailing realities had compounded with the strains of the pandemic to justify by all means the need for special interventions. The disbursement of grants to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) by the Government of Nigeria has relatively find a place in the measures put in place to respond to the constrains.
Recently, it was disclosed the Federal Government has disbursed N56.84 billion to 835,161 beneficiaries under the MSME Survival Fund scheme. On Monday (22 Monday, 2021), the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Evelyn Ngige, at the opening of the 13th Meeting of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment in Ado-Ekiti, themed “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development in Nigeria: The Roles of Stakeholders,” said the scheme was targeted at strengthening ordinary Nigerians and reducing the poverty index in the Country to the nearest minimum.
She was quoted: “On the N75 billion MSME Survival Fund, the programme has disbursed N8.80billion to 293,336 beneficiaries under the Artisan Support and Transport Scheme; N43.92 billion to 459,334 beneficiaries under the Payroll Support Scheme; and N4.12 billion to 82,491 beneficiaries under the MSME Grant Scheme. In total, the sum of N56.84 billion has been disbursed to 835,161 beneficiaries under the MSME Survival Fund scheme. We are also ensuring credit access to 10 million MSMEs at a single-digit rate. In the implementation of this strategic pillar of the Federal Government to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country, the Ministry, through the Bank of Industry (BOI), has disbursed N15billion to 863 MSME businesses across several sectors.”
It would be recalled that in September, as the call for government intervention continue to gather cloud, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had disclosed that it had received over eight million applications from Nigerians for its COVID-19 Targeted Credit Facility to help households and businesses. The Director, Corporate Communications Department of the apex bank, Mr Osita Nwanisiobi, had while fielding questions from journalists in Enugu during a one-day interactive enlightenment session with the organised labour and civil society groups on the five-year policy thrust of the CBN, said that over 600,000 applicants had benefited from the various COVID-19-induced interventions so far. He was quoted, “We started with about N50bn. We moved to N100bn, to N300bn; today; we are talking about N400 billion. Now, the number of applications that we have is over eight million applications and we have done over 600,000. Now, will people complain that they haven’t received it? The answer is yes; you see the number and then you see what we are doing.The reality is that we are not resting on our oars. The governor is actually very passionate because he has also seen that what we have done in this regard also help Nigerians exit recession and to post the kind of GDP that we have posted and so he is poised to do more.”
It would only be instructive to state that the need for the Government to configure the survival interventions within frameworks that coordinate the policy responses under a broad system of linkage patterns to optimise efficiency and effectiveness is paramount. This remains essential to avoid mere dashing out of funds defeating the purpose of revitalising the economy. Hence, it has become instructive to employ formidable instruments of coordination to galvanize measures working towards the end of productive results. Such architecture should beyond disbursement, incorporate workshop parameters as sensitisation provisions along business segments, to acquaint small business operators who are beneficiaries on instructive patterns for the application of the funds, while upon disbursement giving strong response system of feedbacks as guides towards strong monitoring framework. The coordination of the frameworks remain significant to avoid loss of purpose from the intents of the interventions as experienced overtime. Also paramount is the need to craft strong administrative mechanisms to check against the possibilities of corruption, misapplication and diversion of the funds at all levels along the chain of operations.