Business
Tinubu says 21 MSME hubs support 650,000 jobs across Nigeria
President Bola Tinubu has said 21 shared facilities established across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory are supporting businesses and an estimated 650,000 jobs.
The facilities, established under the Federal Government’s National MSME Clinics initiative, provide entrepreneurs with access to equipment, electricity and production infrastructure without requiring them to bear the full cost of setting up such facilities themselves.
President Tinubu disclosed this in a statement on Monday while highlighting the government’s efforts to address infrastructure and equipment challenges facing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
According to the President, many small businesses have the skills and ideas to expand but struggle to access the equipment and infrastructure needed to increase production.
He said the shared MSME hubs were designed to reduce some of those barriers by allowing entrepreneurs to use modern production facilities without making large upfront investments.
He cited tailors and food processors as examples of businesses that could benefit from the model.
“A tailor should not need millions of naira to buy industrial machinery before she can grow her business. A food processor should not have to build a factory before producing at scale,” he said.
The President said access to shared facilities could allow businesses to increase production while reducing their operating costs.
“When small businesses can produce more, at lower cost, they become more competitive. They grow. They employ more people. They create income and opportunity for Nigerian families.”
MSME support
The initiative comes as the Federal Government expands programmes aimed at improving access to finance, equipment, skills and markets for small businesses.
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The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), which implements several government MSME support programmes, has previously identified access to finance, infrastructure and markets among the challenges confronting small businesses.
The government has also introduced other interventions aimed at improving access to credit. These include the National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC), which provides guarantees to encourage financial institutions to lend to businesses and other eligible borrowers.
President Tinubu noted that the government’s approach was focused on removing barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from turning their skills and ideas into sustainable businesses.
“Our job is to remove those barriers,” he said.
He added that strengthening small businesses would help create employment, increase household incomes and expand economic activity.
“Giving Nigerian enterprise the tools to succeed is how we build prosperity from the ground up,” President Tinubu said.
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The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) has said 777,907 vulnerable women across 15 Nigerian states are on track to benefit from 15.56 million shares in Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals under its Women Share Subscription Grant Initiative.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Zouera Youssofou, its managing director/CEO, the foundation said the programme aims to promote financial inclusion and empower women through equity ownership in one of Africa’s largest industrial investments.
“A total of 777,907 underprivileged Nigerian women across 15 states are set to benefit from 15.56 million shares in Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals IPO under the Aliko Dangote Foundation’s (ADF) Women Share Subscription Grant Initiative,” the statement said.
The initiative forms part of the foundation’s broader target of empowering two million vulnerable women across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it stated further.
The foundation said 15 state governments have committed to participating in the programme, under which each state’s financial contribution will be matched by the foundation to provide beneficiaries with shares at no cost to the beneficiaries.
The participating states include Abia, Anambra, Borno, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Yobe and Zamfara.
Last week, PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals extended its ongoing $1.6 billion IPO, originally scheduled to end on 13 October, by two weeks to enable broader participation across Africa, following robust, continent-wide interest.
Since its launch, the IPO has been heralded as the biggest-ever on the continent. It is offering 4.1 billion shares at N525 per unit, with a minimum subscription of 10 shares. Its green shoe option allows an additional 30 per cent of the shares on offer to be sold if it is oversubscribed.
In July, a private placement ahead of the IPO was 270 per cent oversubscribed, even though the original plan was to raise $2.5 billion.
The IPO attracted billions of naira within minutes of opening, with a couple of trading platforms, including Bamboo and Cowrywise, experiencing downtime on the first day on account of unprecedented subscription traffic.
Shares allocation
The foundation noted that Gombe State has emerged as the first participating state to make full payment towards the initiative, marking a milestone in its implementation.
Under the arrangement, each beneficiary is eligible to receive 20 shares at an indicative allocation price of N525 per share, giving each recipient an allocation valued at N10,500.
The state government will finance 10 shares per beneficiary, while the foundation will provide a matching contribution for the remaining 10 shares.
The initiative, according to the statement, seeks to extend the benefits of the IPO beyond institutional and high net-worth individuals to vulnerable women, many of whom may be participating in the capital market for the first time.
Rather than relying solely on conventional financial assistance, the programme intends to give beneficiaries ownership of productive assets and an opportunity to participate in long-term wealth creation.
The foundation’s target of reaching two million women across all 774 local government areas underscores its ambition to expand financial inclusion and broaden individual participation in Nigeria’s capital market.
ADF acknowledged the support of the Nigerian Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission in advancing the initiative’s financial inclusion objectives.
The programme runs simultaneously with the foundation’s Tertiary Students Share Subscription Grant Initiative, which is designed to support eligible students looking to participate in the IPO.
Under the students’ initiative, the foundation supports applications for 10 shares on behalf of each participating eligible student at no cost.
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