By Ahmed Kaigama
The Nigeria COVID-19 Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG- CARES),
Bauchi State, has commenced enumeration of 730 Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) beneficiaries.
The Programme Manager of NG-CARES in Bauchi, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, said this at the opening ceremony
of the enumeration exercise on Monday in Bauchi.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NG-CARES is a support programme to state governments
by the Federal Government, through the World Bank, to cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on
poor and vulnerable citizens.
He said that the Bank of Industry (BOI) is the technical partner to do enumeration by obtaining data of the
beneficiaries across the 20 local government areas of the state.
He added that over 3.452 successful applicants have undergone the vetting process for the disbursement linked
indicator (DLI) 3.2.
He said that at the end of the vetting process, over 730 successful applicants are currently being contacted for
enumeration by BOI agents.
He recalled that “over 30,000 applicants from across all 20 local government areas of the state applied through
online and offline registration processes at the Directorate of Small and Medium Scale Enterprise.”
Ibrahim said the exercise is expected to be conducted simultaneously across the three senatorial district clusters
in Bauchi, Azare and Misau local government areas.
The programme, he added, would improve the state of MSMEs, as well as boost the local economy and employment
generation in the state.
Mr Chefas Leka, the Supervisor from Bank of Industry, said data of the beneficiaries would be captured for
processing of the grant.
He said “the grant is to cushion the economic impact of COVID-19 on struggling businesses, as well as build
resilience by expanding access to digital technology and operational support.
“Enumerators will begin receiving beneficiaries’ data to process the first tranche of disbursement.” (NAN)
