Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq has flagged off the much-awaited NEXIT/CBN Agri-Business Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme for exited N-Power beneficiaries Batches A and B.
Out of the 467,183 trainees who indicated interest, 75,600 will participate in the first phase of the orientation programme expected to lead up to a collection of loans of up to three million Naira from the Central Bank of Nigeria if they qualify.
At the flag-off ceremony in Abuja, the Minister thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for his administration’s unwavering efforts in eradicating poverty in the country and for supporting and sustaining the National Social Investment Programmes.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Bashir Alkali the minister congratulated the 467,183 trainees who indicated an interest in the NEXIT/CBN AGSMEIS programme from the 500,000 batches A and B exited beneficiaries.
“ It has been my desire that the exited batches A and B N-Power graduate beneficiaries will not be left unattended to for the ease of coordination, this training programme will be conducted in phases. Let me also inform you that all 36 States and FCT are participating in this long-awaited NEXIT training programme. A total of 75,600 participants are in this first batch of the training. We will continue to train the remaining batches in no distant time.
The Permanent Secretary who was represented by the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics, Raphael Oraeluno charged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the opportunity.
The National Coordinator, National Social Investment Programmes, Dr Umar Bindir advised the beneficiaries to take advantage of the CBN package to be self-reliant.
At the end of the five-day training, beneficiaries who qualify will receive Loans of up to N3 million with a maximum tenure of seven years.
RN