Nigeria SME BusinessHub

Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme (PCGS)

The Federal Government of Nigeria is delighted to announce the kickoff of the Presidential Conditional Grant to Nano Businesses as part of the Presidential Palliative Program.

About The Scheme

The grant sum is N50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira) per beneficiary, and it is designed to reach one million nano businesses in the 774 local government areas. The Federal Government will collaborate with the State Governments, Honourable Ministers, NASME (Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises), Senators, and House of Representative Members, who will use the Federal Government’s selection criteria below to shortlist the beneficiaries from their constituents.

The target beneficiaries are 70% women and youth, 10% people with disabilities, and 5% senior citizens, while the remaining 15% is distributed to other demographics.

Below are the …

SHRMLabs’ Better Workplaces Challenge Cup (BWCC), powered by SHRM, is a global competition in search of the most innovative and game-changing ideas and solutions that are solving for the workplaces’ most critical challenges. Does your solution have what it takes?  

The BWCC Startup track is a three-round hybrid pitch competition to identify WorkplaceTech startups that are revolutionizing the way we work. Startups will present their technologies in front of HR experts, business leaders, and SHRM members with a chance to win $50,000 and take their business to the next level. The first round commences in March 2024, consisting of five segments focused on a distinct HR category. Five companies of the same category will be selected to compete in each segment. The winner of each segment will then proceed to the semi-finals. From there, the top three startups will move to the final round to compete live and in-person at SHRM’s Annual Conference and Expo in Chicago, …

In cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office the World Cinema Fund launched a special funding opportunity for projects from sub-Saharan Africa in 2016. All WCF submissions with projects from sub-Saharan Africa will automatically also be considered for the special funding by the WCF Africa programme.

Important: Only projects in post-production phase are eligible to apply for funding. Post-production meaning: the entirety/majority of the shooting has been done and at least a rough-cut is in place, which is part of the submission. Please note that only films that realistically can be finished by October 2024 are eligible to apply.

The WCF aims to support films in the WCF regions/countries by developing active cooperations between producers and directors from these regions and German partners. Therefore, German film companies play an important role in the structure of the WCF – in a cultural-political and in…

The Federal Government says it will soon commence disbursement of funds under its Presidential Palliative Programme, targeted at alleviating the impact of the fuel subsidy removal.

A statement on Sunday by the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, said the programmes consisted of the Presidential Conditional Grant Programme and the Presidential Palliative Loan Programme.

It stated, “In the Presidential Conditional Grant Programme, the Federal Government will disburse a grant sum of N50,000 to nano businesses across the 774 local government areas.

“The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria will collaborate with state and local governments, federal legislators, federal ministers, banks and other stakeholders.

“Eligible nano business beneficiaries should be willing to provide proof of residential/busines…

Wema Bank, in partnership with the Federal Government, has commenced virtual training in the FGN/ALAT Digital Skillnovation Programme for small and medium enterprises.

A statement said the programme launched in September 2023, had witnessed hundreds of thousands of business owners, aspiring business owners, working-class professionals and jobseekers expressing keen interest in developing their digital skills, enhancing their employability and deepening their business management skills.

“The FGN/ALAT Digital Skillnovation Programme for MSMEs aim to train 2,000,000 Nigerian youth and 1,000,000 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises with a diverse range of digital skills,” it stated.

The skills include software engineering, product management, business analysis, cloud computing, product design, and more.

It said applicants of the FGN/ALAT Digital Skillnovation Programme could anticipate a holistic experience beyond virtual training as they…

Providus Bank Limited says it has collaborated with MasterCard to introduce an innovative payment solution for business customers, to facilitate seamless transactions for both payment and collection purposes.

A statement said while speaking at the launch of the new solution named Amphi card, the Managing Director of the Bank, Mr Walter Akpani, emphasised the institution’s commitment to innovation.

He expressed gratitude to MasterCard for its partnership in the project. “We want to pioneer new ways of doing things and that is not something we can do alone,” he said.

Akpani described the card as part of the bank’s ongoing pursuit of innovation.

He said, “The frontier of innovation never stops; we just have to continue to prod our intellectual abilities to do new things. At the end of it all, it is the customers that benefit from this push for innovation.”

He reassured the bank’s customers that they would remain at the forefron…

The founder of Gtext Holdings through his foundation, Stephen Akintayo Foundation, said, as part of his give-back, has given $5,000 each to 20 young entrepreneurs to support their companies and scale up in their businesses.

This, he stated, would be increased to 100 entrepreneurs next year to cater for other African entrepreneurs.

This is even as Rana Ijaz Ahmad has been appointed as the new Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Gtext Holdings, in its plan to expand its horizons and access venture capital in the United States and beyond,

The new appointment, according to the founder and former Group CEO, Dr Stephen Akintayo is to realize the company new goals and growth plans of the firm which has seven companies. One of the goals is to build a thousand homes in the United States and Nigeria.

Gtext Homes, a subsidiary of Gtext Holdings is Africa’s biggest developer of green and smart homes. Akintayo who now assumes the position of C…

The Ogun State Government has announced a N1 billion grant for over 1,000 Small and Medium-scale Enterprises to further mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in the sector.

In a statement on Sunday, it was revealed that the N1 billion grant was the second phase disbursement for applicants.

The first phase of the grant disbursement under the Ogun State COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme was disbursed in July and had over 1,000 SMEs benefiting from the N120m grant.

The Chief Economic Adviser to the Governor, Mr Dapo Okubadejo, who is also the Chairman State CARES Steering Committee, revealing the modalities for accessing the N1bn operational grant for SMEs, said the Governor Dapo Abiodun-led administration was determined to uplift businesses with the aim of enhancing economic growth and development of the state.

Okubadejo disclosed that the grant was also to help vulnerable, people with physical impediments and business…