By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
At least 382 fellows of the Nigeria Jubilee Fellowship Programme, NJFP have been deployed to different ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs), and other public enterprises in Ebonyi State.
NJFP is a Federal government of Nigeria initiative co-funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The programme as a talent incubator, seeks to improve the employability of fresh graduates by connecting them to practical on-the-job skills through a 12-month paid placement opportunity in private and public sector institutions across the country. The NJFP is designed as a scalable model for facilitating a transformative and impactful transition of fresh graduates from learning to earning.
The Director General of Ebonyi State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, EBSMEDA, Dr Stephen Odoh disclosed this during the weekend while interacting with newsmen in his office in Abakaliki, the state capital.
Odoh also stated that over 7,000 NANO business operators in Ebonyi State have benefited from the N50,000 grant approved by Governor Francis Nwifuru- administration this year.
He explained that the EBSMEDA was created by Governor Nwifuru to serve as one of the means of addressing his People's Charter of Needs mantra in Ebonyi State.
Odoh, the former and pioneer Commissioner for Business Development in Ebonyi State said Governor Nwifuru has a special interest in the ease of doing business, for having created EBSMEDA to ensure a clear cost commitment to the survival of Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs through grants, access to financial linkages, capacity building, and linkage to other financial organizations, as ways of promoting business growth and development in the state.
The EBSMEDA DG recalled that on his assumption of office in 2023, he toured all the 13 local government areas in the state with his team, to do product identification, specifically on priority products for agricultural value chain development.
He said that upon the identification of the priority products, the local government chairmen were encouraged to develop the program as the agency brought the federal agencies, including NAFDAC, FIRS, SON, BOI, and CBN, to sensitize small business owners on means of accessing loans and grants for business promotion in the state.
He further commended the governor for having given grants ranging from N100,000, N300,000, and N500,000 to small business owners between December 2023 and January 2024.
"Between December 2023 and January 2024, we gave grants to small business owners from the tune of N100,000, N300,00, and N500,000, and currently, we have given N50,000 grants to 7,000 NANO business operators across the state.
"What we call NANO is the lowest level of businesses such as women frying akara, vulcanizers, barbing salon persons, and phone accessories sellers, etc. We support them to make their businesses grow better.
"Currently, you can hear the deployment of 382 fellows of Nigeria Jubilee Fellowship Programme to different ministries and public enterprises. This was coordinated by this office. We are also involved in the agriculture programme with the CBN, working with the Global Bank and local governments. Recently, we had training for the nominees from Ohaukwu local government area. We worked with CBN, Bank of Industry, and Global Bank to train the nominees to get a one million Naira loan from the Global Bank."
He added that in CBN, the one million fund had to be dedicated to the agricultural development programme, that is its value chain development from farming to production, processing, packaging and marketing.
He disclosed that over 1,300 people have benefited from the one million Naira empowerment by the state governor, noting that since the inception of the present administration in Ebonyi, it has been a celebration of financial alerts through EBSMEDA, FADAMA and CSDA.
Odoh thanked Governor Nwifuru for his maximum support to the agency to do better, saying that the governor means well for the SMEs in the state.
He described it as challenging to meet the expectations of over 4 million Ebonyi people following some critics alleging exclusion because they are yet to be captured in any of the state empowerment programs, starting from the two million Naira empowerment to hawkers by Governor Nwifuru-led administration.
While assuring the Ebonyi people of the state government's readiness to continue to address their plights through the agency, he said a strong artillery had been formed to monitor and encourage the beneficiaries of the various empowerment programmes in the state.
