Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Dr Doris Anite, said President Bola Tinubu's administration's N200 billion Presidential Palliative Programme will support businesses in Nigeria.
Anite said this during her presentation at the Ministerial Sectoral News Conference in commemoration of President Bola Tinubu's first anniversary on Tuesday in Abuja.
She said the programme, aimed at catalysing economic growth, provided grants to nano businesses and loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, and manufacturers at single-digit interest rates.
Anite said the ministry, in partnership with the Bank of Industry, BOI, successfully began phased disbursement of the grants in line with the palliative programme.
The minister said President Tinubu was committed to supporting manufacturing and industrial clusters for industrialization.
According to her: “The ministry had commenced the initial process of mapping out major industrial clusters across the country to provide these with targeted intervention, thereby enhancing their vibrancy and competitiveness.”
She said a lot of industrial clusters are still not connected to efficient and affordable power supplies, but the ministry has started connecting some of them.
Dr Anite said: “We are flagging off our “Light Up” campaigns, starting with the Agbara Industrial Zone, which is not connected to the power grid. We are connecting it to the power grid. We will connect the Danwanu market in Kano to captive gas power. We are connecting the Nnewi industrial cluster to gas.
“We will continue to focus on supporting industries until all industrial hubs have electricity and gas to manufacture cheaper and more competitively. This strategic move signifies our resolve to harness clusters as engines of economic growth and development, fostering innovation, job creation, and inclusive prosperity across Nigeria in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
