Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and Micro Small And Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Temitola Adekunle-Johnson, on Thursday disclosed that the administration of President Bola Tinubu will create at least, 384,000 jobs in the next four years.
Adekunle-Johnson stated this at a Communications Forum organized by his office on Job creation and MSMEs.
He said about 100,000 jobs will be created by the end of May, 2024 by the administration as it was the desire of the present government to focus on jobs creation.
“We are saying that by the end of May 29, we will create at least 100,000 jobs. The target is to create 384,000 jobs in four years,” the presidenrial aide noted.
According to him, the initiative would be a partnership between the Federal Government and Access Bank.
He said. “Today’s programme is to announce our partnership with the Access Bank, how the bank is trying to support the government with regards to access to funding for MSMEs. Right now, the interest rate for loans is between 27 and 29 per cent, but Access bank is giving us at the rate of 15 percent.”
The Presidential aide therefore thanked Access Bank for supporting businesses to thrive in the country.
Also speaking at the event, Head, non-financial Services and Emerging Businesses at Access Bank, Mrs. Chioma Ogwo said: “We are giving them affordable loans at 15 percent and free grants to deserving SMEs who have done very well.
“We have a business exchange programme for the beneficiaries that would enable the SMEs to go and exchange ideas with their counterparts in other countries. We will then learn the best from the best and come back to replicate it in Nigeria.
The Deputy Chief of Staff to the president, Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, in his remark said MSMEs provide resilience and agility to any economy.
Also present at the event were the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijjani; the SSA to the President on Digital Media and Emergency Management, Hon. Ahmed Ningi; the DG of VON, Mallam Jibrin Ndace who represented the Minister of Information, and the representative of the Registrar General of the CAC, among others.