The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, has disclosed that 319,755 Nigerians have so far benefitted from the Economic Sustainability Plan’s Survival Fund Payroll Support, adding that the Federal Government has granted the next batch of beneficiaries under the scheme and the one-off General MSME Grant of N50,000 to be paid this week.

The Vice-President’s aide made this known on Sunday in a statement titled ‘ESP survival fund: More payroll support payments, MSME grants to commence this week.’

He stated that: “This (this week’s payment) is expected to increase the number of beneficiaries under the Payroll Support track, which has so far benefitted a total of 319,755 Nigerians, while 265,425 Nigerians are beneficiaries under the Artisan and Transport Support track.

“Of the 265,425 beneficiaries, there are 118,581 beneficiaries under Artisan support track, and 146,844 beneficiaries under the Transport track.

“The payroll support track aims to support 500,000 beneficiaries with payment of up to N50,000 per employee for a period of three months.

“The MSME Survival Fund, a component under the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan, is designed to support vulnerable Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs in the MSMEs sector.”

Akande explained that the scheme is estimated to save not less than 1.3 million jobs across the country and specifically impact on over 35,000 individuals per state.

The General MSME Grant is a one-off grant of N50,000 that will be given to each qualified MSME as direct cash injection into their enterprise.

The Vice- President Aide further revealed that said the total number of beneficiaries in this track is 100,000 spread across the states.

“In the same vein, under the Artisan Support scheme, a total of 333,000 Artisans and Transport business operators nationwide will get a one-time operations grant of N30,000 per beneficiary to reduce the effects of income loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Also, 172,129 businesses have so far benefitted under the under the ESP Survival Fund formalization support track, which is aimed at registering 250,000 new businesses for free with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

“The formalisation support scheme had commenced on October 26, 2020, with the registration by aggregators – CAC registration agents across the 36 states and the FCT,” he added