FG targets 500,000 employees under survival fund scheme

Joy Obakeye

The Federal Government has announced plans to support over 500,000 employees with a N30,000 one-off grant for 90 days, noting the move was to cushion the effects of Covid 19 on the business community.

Already, the fund being disbursed by the Bank of Industry (BoI) has seen over 311,000 employees benefit so far from the scheme with plans to close to gap by the end of February 2021.

Speaking at the payroll support activation ceremony in Lagos, the Senior Associate, Bank of Industry, Emmanuel Musa, explained that the 311,000 beneficiaries represent about 65 per cent of its target, maintaining that the survival fund is a five component programme set up by the federal government to support businesses affected by the pandemic.

“The target is 500,000 employees and we still have some numbers to make up across the federation. The 311,000 employees that have benefited from the fund represents about 65 per cent target that we have achieved so far. The survival fund is a five component programme which the payroll support fund is one aspect of it,” he said.

READ ALSO: ₦75bn Survival Fund: 174,574 apply under 48 hours

According to him, “We can say that we have achieved a sustainable success because our target is 500,000 and we are currently giving this salary grant for 3 months to 311,000 across the 36 States in the country and we believe we have made a remarkable success in terms of achievements that we have set out for this programme.”

He noted plans are also on-going to provide added benefits such as trainings and capacity building programmes

“The portal is currently open for registration and there are other schemes such as the guaranteed off-take scheme, business name registration and based on the feedbacks that we have been getting from the beneficiary engagement events, the project delivery team is looking into ways that we can further provide some added on benefits even if it is not cash to support businesses going forward,” he said.

A beneficiary in the manufacturing sector, Nwodo Uchechukwu, said during the pandemic, said many companies could not meet up with payment of staff salaries, adding that the fund came in during the yuletide period.

“Our staff came back from the Christmas break very happy because the company put efforts to register for the survival fund,” he said.

Describing the application process, she said applying for the fund was done seamlessly as long applicants provide the necessary documents while also meeting the requirements.

The principal award international secondary school, Mr. Nicholas Emi-Johnson, expressed his gratitude to the federal government for the survival fund established to cushion the effects of the pandemic.

He added: “The money helped to solve a lot of issues, although it is not enough and we need more. Initially, not all our staff believed in it and when we registered, the alert started flowing in. We were given N30,000 each for 90 days.”