Kwara COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) Programme has commenced the enumeration of business owners in the state for the first batch of operational cost grants
The programme, a World Bank initiative to be underwritten by the Kwara State Government, is designed to cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, improve the state of MSMEs towards boosting the local economy, and increase the employment rate in Kwara state.
Speaking with newsmen at Government Secondary School Ilorin, one of the centres for the enumeration exercise, Operational Grant Team Lead, Disbursement Link Indicator Three point two, Mr. Jaiye Jegede, said over 3,000 business owners would eventually benefit from the grant.
Mr. Jegede announced that over 20,000 applicants from across the 16 local government areas of the state had applied through a hybrid of online and offline registration processes at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Technology and the Kwara state Social Investment Programmes office.
Mr Jegede said that the programme is focused on improving the employment rate and ease of running businesses in the state.
According to him, the enumeration exercise entails verification of relevant documents submitted by the applicants by the Bank of Industry.
Mr. Jegede commended Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for ensuring that the World Bank Support gets to the people of Kwara State, saying that the beneficiaries would receive varying amounts of grants depending on the cost or expenses incurred by business owners during the peak of Covid-19.
After his enumeration, Afolabi Olanrewaju hailed the state government for the gesture, saying he would use the fund to expand his furniture business if and when granted.
He said: “If at the end of the day the grants are given to us, it means that the current government is really out to alleviate poverty in the lives of the people of the state.”
