The Lagos state government on Friday boosted 100 small business owners in Alimosho local government area of the state with smart PoS
phones to enhance their businesses.
The state, through its Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) Programme, also called Lagos-CARES, plans to give one million small business owners the smart PoS phones to reduce poverty level in the country.
The executive secretary, Lagos State Employment Trust Fund, Mrs. Teju Abisoye, during the presentation, said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was aware of the negative effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on residents and hoped to eradicate poverty with the programme.
According to her, the CARES programme “is a state-level intervention that seeks to mitigate and cushion the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the residents of Lagos.”
She noted that the World Bank had directed that focus should be more on 70 per cent women and 30 per cent men, having identified women as the most vulnerable.
Mrs. Abisoye added that the programme, aside from enabling the small business owners to provide PoS services, would also allow them to get credit grant, operations grant and IT enhancement grant.
“Under the credit grant, there will be a conditional capital grant for co-financing up to 40 per cent of new loans that were taken by June 2020 and originated by a financial institution licensed by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to qualified beneficiaries in Covid-19 crisis.
“For the operations grant, conditional grants would be given to support ongoing operational expenditure, bringing about employment and job creation grants. This covers operating expenses such as payroll, rent, utilities, alternative power supply among others. It also excludes taxes and regulatory levies,” she said.
