By Ebenezer Adurokiya | Warri
Chairman of the Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, Dr Michael Tidi, has empowered 250 Small Scale Entrepreneurs (SSE) to help boost their businesses.
This, he said is the maiden edition of Enterprise and Empowerment programme as part of efforts to scale up economic activities in the city.
Out of the 250 beneficiaries, 50 of them were given Point of Sale (POS) machines and a token of N70,000 to start up the business.
The remaining 200 beneficiaries were given cheques of a N100, 000 each to inject into their already existing businesses.
Tidi said the beneficiaries were drawn from the National Social Register of Delta State through the Community-Based Targeting (CBT) identifying the poor and vulnerable in the communities of Warri South Local Government Area.
He said the gesture became necessary after his administration has provided the infrastructural platform for the development of Warri and for commerce to thrive.
“This is the brainchild of the first and second Warri Economic Summit where the governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa and some economic eggheads and industry personnel were present. Part of the recommendations is what we are gradually implementing here today.
“You and I know that the progress or anchor of any economic progress is the SMEs. This is SME acceleration in every sense of the word.
“This Economic Empowerment programme is a response to the observed deficiencies in the capital base on small scale business operators and lack of investment in human capital development at the grassroots resulting to uneven distribution of resources to the poor and vulnerable,” Tidi said.
He added that the empowerment was in line with Okowa’s Youth Empowerment Programme which is focused on human development programmes wherein some small scale business operators in the local government areas, who are at the bottom of the economic pyramid, were identified for inclusion to access Micro Credit towards boosting their businesses.
“I wish to thank my mentor, the amiable governor of Delta State Sen (Dr,) Ifeayin Okowa for his various youth empowerment programme at the state level.
“The youth development programmes of the state governor have been described as unprecedented and phenomenal. His youth empowerment programmes are what we have keyed into by this empowerment of small scale business operators,” Tidi said.
Tidi added that the programme, which is the maiden edition in the history of the council, would come up again in no distant time, but stressed that “continuity of this empowerment would be determined by how judicious and efficient the recipients today would put the resources to use.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
