Keeping faith with his electoral
promise, Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, recently provided a N1
billion intervention fund for 705 small and medium enterprises at a
concessionary rate of interest. Gboyega Akinsanmi writes
He was a pessimist. He never believed
any government; neither did he ever trust any political leader. His
feelings might have been due to the huge catalogue of promises
governments at different levels had failed to honour in the past
decades. However, Mr. Tosin Adesanwo got a shock of his life when he
emerged one of the entrepreneurs that benefitted from the Lagos State
Employment Trust Fund (LSETF).
Adesanwo, a social entrepreneur,
acknowledged that he was compelled to apply when the Lagos State
Government rolled out the scheme, sometimes in 2016. His reason is not
far-fetched. He said he never believed any government could make good
its promise in this country. Aside, he never believed because most
governments “are finding it hard to survive at this time of recession.”
But to his amazement, his application
was successful. He said he received a support of N5 million from the
Lagos State Government, which he said, would be used to boost his
business. Until his application sailed through, Adesanwo thought the
scheme “was a mere hoax or at best a tool of politics.” For these
reasons, he dismissed it initially, but though finally yielded to
persuasion from friends and relatives to participate.
Mr. Chike Obi shared a similar story
too. When he heard about the scheme, Obi quickly dismissed it. He said:
“I felt it was just one of the gimmicks of political leaders.” After
much persuasion, Obi reluctantly applied for the scheme, which he said,
did not cost a dime. But that bold step, according to him, has become a
reality. He said his emergence “has disproved his impression about the
government.
“Most of the beneficiaries did not
initially believe that the scheme was real. We just applied. But
Governor Ambode has brought real change to governance. The selection
process was fair and transparent. There is no consideration for gender,
religion and tribe. Every qualified applicant received some support
irrespective of which religion he or she belongs to and where he or she
comes from.”
Like Adesanwo and Obi, 703 other
entrepreneurs benefitted from a sum of N1 billion the state government
doled out last week to boost small and medium enterprises and create
more jobs for the residents of the state. The fund was part of N25
billion, which Ambode said, would be provided to support at least
100,000 small businesses and pull out thousands of youths from the realm
of uncertainties.
Some of the recipients shared their
experiences after the governor presented them cheques recently. For
them, the scheme is truly pro-people, even though they did not believe
initially something good could come out of it. They said the Ambode’s
administration “has demonstrated strong will to lift up millions from
poverty and passion to create wealth at a time national economy is
greatly troubled.”
By this intervention, Ambode truly
stands with the masses, says Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, Chairman of
LESTF Board of Trustees. For her, it is a fulfillment of promises the
governor made during his campaign. But this intervention preceded the
2015 electioneering. He started with La Roche Leadership Foundation,
which he established shortly after he retired from the state public
service.
Through La Roche, Ambode annually
recognised a number of social entrepreneurs for their intervention. In
June 2014, he specifically commended the Executive Director of
Street-to-School Initiative, Mrs. Tosin Taiwo, whose initiative still
provides essential support for primary schools and pupils in Lagos
suburbs. That attests to his passion to touch lives and empower the
youths.
So, just after he assumed office in
2015, Ambode initiated a Lagos State Employment Trust Fund Bill, which
the State House of Assembly passed into law. Under the law, the state
government would annually release a sum N6.25 billion to entrepreneurs
for a period of four years. By 2019, the fund is expected to have
disbursed a whopping sum of N25 billion to small-scale businesses.
The fund was not established without a
clear mandate, says the governor. By 2019, according to him, it is
projected that at least 300,000 direct jobs and 600,000 indirect jobs
will be created through this intervention. Likewise, he said, it is
expected that wealth will be created. So, unlike commercial banks that
charge as high as 25 per cent interest rate, the beneficiaries will only
pay 5 per cent interest rate per annum.
This incentive is unprecedented in this
history of Nigeria, says Omoigui-Okauru. At a time like this, she
explained that the need “to provide jobs and create wealth shapes the
government’s decision to peg the interest rate at 5 per cent.” During
his campaign, she said the need “to provide jobs was clearly on the mind
of Ambode. He spoke about it. He talked about it. And he made good his
promise.”
She said Ambode started with the
enactment of the law setting up the fund. By this single decision,
Omoigui thus said there “is no better testimony to the passion of a man
who has been called to serve than this.” Ambode did not just ensure the
enactment of the law. Also, he followed up with the constitution of the
Board of Trustees for the Fund. On the day the board was inaugurated,
Omoigui disclosed that a sum of N6.25 billion was transferred to the
Fund.
She said the mandate of the board was
clear. She said it was to deliver on the promise Ambode “has made to the
residents of Lagos. It is to ensure the process is fair and
transparent. It is to ensure the scheme covers all local councils in the
state. It is to ensure there is no favour as to party, religion or
tribe. Women constitute about 50 per cent of Lagos population. Gender is
also a factor.”
To realise this mandate requires that a
structure is put in place, says Omoigui. She thus said it “is easy to
give out money, but it is not easy to get the money back. It is easy to
say the process will be fair, but it is not easy to achieve it if we do
not have the processes to do it. That is what we spent our time doing.
It is not also very easy, whatever we do or whatever we achieve,
carrying all members along.
“As they say, a house divided cannot
stand. So, we spent time putting our heads together; building our team;
getting the staff; ensuring that we have the right processes and
guidelines to set the board up and to set up the processes to secure the
fund. We also spent a lot of time ensuring that we had a process that
we could just define. But guess what the governor was doing while we
were doing all of these.
“He was telling us to hurry up. He
acknowledged that all these processes were good, but my people needed to
be employed. It is not just that we want to ensure we do the right
thing. We also have a passionate governor on our necks, putting pressure
that yes, process is good, but please deliver.”
By November, Omoigui said the board was
ready to launch out, though exercised some restraint in order to ensure
the scheme did not fail because huge fund was entrusted to the board.
She thus said a large project like this “requires a pilot scheme first.
We reached out to different bodies within the state that had put in
place process themselves to generate entrepreneurs, who are looking for
funding, whom they had already trained and who would cut across the
breadth of the state.”
After the pilot scheme, she said the
board “came up with 705 entrepreneurs who had gone through the process
and screened by reputable consulting firm, Price Walter Coopers. The
process is still on-going and funds will be disbursed in phases. But we
have funding available for people who requested for as low as N30, 000
to small and medium enterprises of the maximum of N5 million.
“The applications cut across the breadth
of different kinds of enterprises in the state from those who just want
to buy a camera and beans to make akara to those who have left oil
firms because of recession and plan to set up logistic firms. In this
particular case, there are two women, who just applied, but never
believe their application would sail through,” Omoigui explained.
But Ambode formally presented cheques to
705 beneficiaries recently. Under the pilot scheme, a total sum of N1
billion was doled to the beneficiaries. On this ground, he charged them
“to use these funds responsibly, grow your businesses, create jobs for
our unemployed youths and contribute to the growth of the Lagos State
GDP,” which he said, was the basis for establishing the fund.
Before he assumed office, Ambode said he
had identified unemployment as a major socio-economic challenge facing
Lagos State and Nigeria as a whole in the course of the electoral
campaign. On this ground, he said he worked towards setting up the fund
as a direct response “to address the challenge of unemployment and
support the youths, entrepreneurs, artisans and unemployed residents of
the state.
“We have kept our word. We created a
dedicated Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment, whose mission is
to promote and sustain entrepreneurship and employment. The funds are
targeted at small and medium scale businesses and individuals including
carpenters, block makers, hairdressers, electricians, bakers, fashion
designers, cake makers, food sellers, kerosene retailers, painters,
plumbers, photographers and light manufacturers of liquid soaps and
water among others.”
Ambode said the beneficiaries had made
history as the first set of beneficiaries of this fund. For every N1
million disbursed, he projected, a minimum of five jobs should be
created around the business value chain. This projection explained why
he said the fund “has been provided at a very affordable rate of 5 per
cent per annum, far cheaper than the prevailing bank interest of 25 per
cent per annum.”
He therefore said “this is our modest
way of reflating the Lagos economy, creating jobs and getting our youths
gainfully occupied. Those of you here today, the first beneficiaries of
this initiative, will be the agents through which our country can
overcome its current economic challenges. I call on market women and
female artisans to take advantage of the fund and expand your
businesses.”
Ambode also tasked the LSETF “to pay
special attention to the Entertainment Industry and the Tech Hubs in
Sabo, Yaba area. These are new areas with huge potential for growth and
job creation.” Even though it appeared ambitious, he subscribed to the
board’s plan “to empower at least 100,000 micro, small and medium
enterprises as well as create 300,000 direct jobs and 600,000 indirect
jobs by
2019.”
Ambode (5th right on second line), in a
group photograph with the LSETF Board members and beneficiaries of the
scheme at the cheque presentation ceremony at the LTV Blue Roof,
Ikeja…recently
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