The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has advised operators of Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Oyo State to take advantage of various Federal Government’s initiatives to boost their businesses.

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The Manager of SMEDAN in Oyo State, Mrs Iyabo Ojogbede, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Ibadan.

She said apart from the COVID-19 intervention fund made available by government, there were other programmes initiated by SMEDAN to assist business owners.

“Presently, we have a programme in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Learning (NIRSAL) which is a loan that we are helping MSMEs to access.

“There are also other  programmes in SMEDAN that Nigerians can benefit from.

” There is one that has been available for a while now which is called One Local Government One Product (OLOP).

“On this, we have sent a message to all the cooperatives in the state that they should apply for this programme targeted at those in agribusiness or agro processing.

“Also, more programmes are underway for MSMEs to expand their businesses and improve the nation’s economy.

” Currently, we are planning for them to access a grant.

“We regularly invite MSMEs to log in to our website to register or walk into our office to do the registration for free so that we can have their data with us and  when the programme starts, we will have all their details to invite them to partake in the grant.

“We have received a lot of proposals from MSMEs and we pick one cooperative group per senatorial district because we want everyone in the 33 Local Government Areas in Oyo  to benefit from it.

“It is a yearly programme from SMEDAN to enhance diversification into the non-oil sector, particularly agribusiness and processing,” she said.