Eno empowers 833 entrepreneurs with grants in Akwa Ibom

Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom has empowered 833 entrepreneurs with grants under the Micro Scale Medium Enterprises development scheme.

The beneficiaries who are drawn from Abak-Etim Ekpo-Ika Federal Constituency received their share of the N5.1 billion grant earmarked by the State Government to Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) operators in the State.

The breakdown of the disbursement showed that N111m goes to 178 crop, fish and livestock farmers, N176m to 442 traders of various categories, N30m to six Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises operators and equipment support running into hundreds of millions to 198 craftsman, as well as six beneficiaries of minibuses and three car beneficiaries.

The governor made this known while speaking at the maiden Town Hall Meeting/Empowerment ceremony at the Abak Township Stadium, the State governor identified Micro, Small and Medium- scale entrepreneurs as the engine that powers sustainable economic growth.

He restated his Administration’s resolve to reach out to them both in the city and at remote locations across the rural communities to empower them and enhance their growth.

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“We want to support small medium scale enterprises. These small businesses are the engine of the economy. These are the small traders, farmers, those people that have their handwork.

“Those are the people that help the economy, they employ two or three people and they provide food for their homes. We must support them. I know what you are doing and we will keep supporting you,” Governor Eno stated.

Reaffirming his commitment to rural development, the governor maintained that he would be satisfied to take governance to the rural communities and leave enduring legacies in their lives and environments.

This, he explained, was the reason he chose to embark on painstaking selection of potential beneficiaries to avoid urban-based enlistment of portfolio traders and farmers, attesting to the utmost transparency and due diligence of the selection process and that the beneficiaries were real and verifiable, while also admonishing beneficiaries to make good use of the grant with the consciousness that it is a one-off opportunity.

“No more will we sit in Uyo and write names of people we do not know. We have profiled all these people. If you check the brochure or go to Akwa Ibom State Government website, you’ll see all their names, their phone numbers and their addresses so you can go and verify whether they got the monies or not.

“We have visited their businesses; we have visited their farms and they are not portfolio business people, so we have decided to come to their Federal Constituency to disburse the money and we will do same to others. But one thing is, once we support you, your name is captured on the portal so you cannot get it again. It will be some other peoples turn. So use your own well.

“I want to be remembered as the Governor who brought governance to the rural areas. I want to be remembered as the governor who interacted with the rural communities so they too can smell the fragrance of government. They can have good schools, good roads, good hospitals. They can have water, they can have basic necessities of life”, he added.