No fewer than three thousand small scale business owners are to benefit from the first batch of operational cost grants under the Kwara COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) Programme.
The programme, a World Bank initiative to be executed by the Kwara State Government, is designed to reduce the effects of COVID-19, improve the state of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to boost the local economy, and increase the employment rate in Kwara state.
According to the Operational Grant Team Lead – JAIYE JEGEDE, in a statement on Sunday said that over 20,000 applicants from across all 16 local governments 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.
JEGEDE added that at the end of the vetting process, over three thousand successful applicants are currently being contacted for enumeration by agents from the Bank of Industry.
The statement explained that the programme would kick off disbursement with the Operational cost grants also known as DLI 3.2, followed by the Credit grant and IT enhancement grant.
Meanwhile, the programme is focused on improving the employment rate and ease of running businesses in the state.