By Modupe Gbadeyanka
About 1,020 owners of small businesses in domiciled in Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area Lagos State has received grants from the council at a ceremony held recently.
Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Mr Obafemi Hamzat, who was present at the event, said the state government will continue to support small-scale business entrepreneurs by providing an enabling environment to grow their businesses in order to reduce poverty.
The Deputy Governor noted that the initiative was to empower people at the grassroots to grow their various businesses and to make them self-dependent, maintaining that the amount of money some people think was small had helped to move a lot of people away from poverty.
While commending Chairman of the council, Mr Hamzat urged the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the grant as usage will determine their ability to get additional grants to boost their businesses, emphasising the need for a database that “will help to monitor those that are empowered in order to encourage them to use the money judiciously”.
In his address, the Chairman of Ikoyi-Obalende Local Council Development Area, Mr Fuad Atanda-Lawal, explained that the programme was initiated to provide grants ranging between N10,000 and N100,000 to residents of the council to support the entrepreneurial growth of the area.
He added that the programme also aims at encouraging hardworking and resilient entrepreneurs in the LCDA to alleviate their challenges and bring smiles to many faces in line with the promises of his administration.
The Chairman emphasised that micro, small and medium enterprises are important contributors to job creation and economic development, thereby playing a major role in most economies by contributing to the GDP, especially in developing countries.
