Ondo distributes N600m loans to artisans

Ondo State Government said on Monday that it would distribute N600m to various groups of traders and artisans to promote industry and entrepreneurship among the low-cadre private sector participants as part of activities to mark this years Artisans Day celebrations.The loan, drawn from the pool of money in the states partnership with the National Economic Reconstruction Funds, will be handed over to beneficiaries during the one week-long activities next week.The Commissioner for Employment and Productivity, Mr. Taye Akinyele, who stated this at a news conference on Monday, said NERFUND had also released N500m as part of its counterpart contribution.He also added that the state government had released N200m out of the N400m as counterpart fund in partial fulfillment of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the state government and the National Economic Reconstruction Funds to raise N1bn.The MOU, he added, was to mobilise N1bn in ration of N600m and N400m by the NERFUND and the Ondo State Government, respectively for empowerment of small and medium enterprises in the Sunshine State.The collaboration with NERFUND, according to Akinyele, was based purely on the desire of the state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, to drive the local economy through activities of the small scale entrepreneurs.Akinyele said, The state went into partnership with NERFUND with a view to mobilising funds for empowerment of small and medium scale enterprises. A Memorandum of Understanding was subsequently signed between the state and the federal agency to raise a sum of N1bn for this purpose.The state was to contribute the sum of N400m while NERFUND was to contribute N600m. The state has already contributed N200m as part of our counterpart payment while NERFUND has put down N500m from its contribution.
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