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FG Commences Payment of N30,000 Grant to Taxi, Bus Drivers, Okada Riders

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As the implementation of its Economic Sustainability Plan, ESP, continues, and in furtherance of its commitment to support small businesses to cushion the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government has also launched the transport support track under its MSME Survival Fund schemes for artisans and transporters.

The launch of the transport track last Monday follows the successful take-off of the Artisans’ Support track on October 1. While the Artisans track is under the Survival Fund, the Transport track is a different scheme also under the Fund.

While verified Artisans have started receiving the N30,000 one-time grants, Nigerians operating in the transport business – including Rideshare drivers (Uber, Bolt, etc.), Taxi drivers, Bus drivers, Keke Napep riders, Okada riders, cart pushers etc., now have the opportunity to benefit from the scheme.

The Artisan track is being implemented in three streams, and as of November 25, a total number of 59,000 individual Artisan beneficiaries have been paid across 24 states in Stream 1 and Stream 2 States.

They include FCT, Lagos, Ekiti, Kaduna, Borno, Kano, Bauchi, Anambra, Abia, Rivers, Plateau, Delta, Taraba, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Edo, Ogun, Ondo, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Enugu, Ebonyi.

While the verification process for artisans under Stream 3 states commenced on Monday, November 30. Stream 3 states comprise Akwa-Ibom, Cross-River, Zamfara, Yobe, Sokoto, Nasarawa, Niger, Imo, Oyo, Osun, Jigawa, Gombe and Benue.

Similarly, payment to beneficiaries under the Payroll Support scheme for different categories of MSMEs, ranging from education, hospitality to other sectors, has since commenced.

The payroll support scheme, which is designed to support vulnerable MSMEs, targets supporting 500,000 beneficiaries with payment of up to N50,000 per employee for a period of three months, starting from October. The disbursements to approved Payroll Support beneficiaries commenced on 17th November 2020.

So far, 207,319 individual beneficiaries drawn from 35,837 businesses/MSMEs nationwide have received their first monthly payment from the Survival Fund’s Payroll Support Scheme.

A breakdown of this figure shows that: N30,000 each was paid to 180,196 employees/Beneficiaries; while N50,000 each was paid to 26,353 employees/Beneficiaries. Out of this, 2.6 per cent of beneficiaries are with special needs, while 43 per cent are female employees/beneficiaries.

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

There will be a total of 9,009 beneficiaries per state for both Artisan and Transport beneficiaries. Of this number per state, there will be a total of 4,505 beneficiaries under the transport scheme, while the remaining 4,504 will be artisan beneficiaries.

For the Transport track, Nigerians are encouraged to apply through their registered Associations to be enumerated, such as the Nigerian Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Keke Riders’ Association, Okada Riders’ Associations and Unions, among others. All schemes are applied to beneficiaries on a first come first serve basis.

State focal persons, project field officers, enumerators and others will work alongside the MSMEs Survival Fund Project Delivery Office to properly identify and ensure that members of the respective associations are paid.

There is also provision for individuals who are members of Associations but will rather apply directly with the enumerators. However, such individual applicants in the transport cluster must show their proof of membership of an association to be enumerated.

Like all the schemes of the Buhari administration to support different categories of Nigerians, these schemes are absolutely free, and the grant will be paid directly to the beneficiary’s account.

Nigerians are encouraged to speak up if anyone tries to charge a fee or subvert this arrangement.

Also, the formalization support scheme (registration of 250,000 new businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC)) commenced on the 26th of October, 2020 and the registration by aggregators – CAC registration agents, has since commenced across the 36 states and the FCT. The ongoing scheme will run for a period of 3 months effective from the date of commencement.

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

In the implementation of the Transport track the Federal Government is working with representatives of Keke Napep and Okada riders; Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN); representatives of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW); Uber and Bolt drivers, among others.

Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
Office of the Vice President
6th December 2020

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Assault: Bolt Driver Apologises to Abia Lawmaker, Loses Services of Lawyers

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Lawyers representing Mr. Stephen Abuwatseye, an Abuja-based Bolt driver who was allegedly assaulted by a member of the House of Representatives, Alex Mascot Ikwechegh, have withdrawn from his case.

The withdrawal came barely 24 hours after the driver made a volte farce by tendering an apology to his alleged assaulter who has since been docked in court by the police over his action.

Ikwechegh was arraigned after he had admitted that he manhandled the e-hailing cab driver and apologized for his unbecoming conduct.

However, in view of the recent turn of events in the matter, Abuwatseye’s lawyers said they were no longer ready to offer legal services to him.

A statement dated November 8, and signed by Zainab M. Otega of Deji Adeyanju & Partners and titled: “PUBLIC STATEMENT ON THE ALLEGED ASSAULT OF MR. STEPHEN ABUWATSEYE: WITHDRAWAL OF LEGAL REPRESENTATION,” read:

“We wish to formally announce the withdrawal of our legal representation in the case involving the alleged assault of Mr. Stephen Abuwatseye.

“On October 28, 2024, Mr. Stephen Abuwatseye walked into our law firm, visibly distressed, and sought redress over an alleged assault. Following his complaint, and having verified his claim, we took steps to protect Mr. Stephen Abuwatseye’s rights, on pro bono basis, culminating in the arraignment of the alleged assaulter.

“However, in view of recent developments and after careful consideration, we have made the decision to withdraw our legal representation in other to protect our professional integrity and maintain the highest ethical standard in the legal profession.

“We wish Mr. Stephen Abuwatseye the very best, while we assure the general public of our continuous commitment towards protecting the rights of the oppressed and indigent members of the society.”

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Again, National Grid Collapses, Second Time in Three Days

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The national power grid has collapsed for the second time in three days, leading to blackouts in several parts of the country.

A check on the Nigerian System Operator’s portal (niggrid.org) showed that power generation dropped to zero megawatts at 11:30 am, affecting all 22 generation companies across the country.

Several electricity distribution companies corroborated this on their social media platforms.

“Please be informed that we experienced a system outage today 07 November 2024 at 11:29Hrs affecting supply within our network,” the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) serving parts of Lagos wrote on X.

“Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders.
Kindly bear with us.

Meanwhile, Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have jerked up metre prices, a few months after a similar increase.

The new price regime became effective on November 5, 2024, according to posts on social media platforms of the various DisCos.

With the recent move, the price of a single-phase metre has jumped from around N117,000 to about N149,800. This is dependent on the DisCo and the metre vendor.

A check by Channels Television indicated that the Eko DisCo put the price of its single-phase metre between N135,987.5 and N161,035 and pegged that of a three-phase meter between N226,600 and N266,600.

On its part, the Ibadan DisCo told its customers to pay from a range of N130,998 and N142,548 for a single-phase metre and N226,556.25 – N232,008 for a three-phase metre.

The Abuja DisCo said the price range for a single-phase metre is from N123,130.53–N147,812.5 and N206,345.65–N236,500 for three-phase metres.

Similarly, the Kano Electricity Distribution put N127,925–N129,999 as the price range for a single-phase metre while three-phase metres cost between N223,793–N235,425.

The Kaduna DisCo put its price for a single-phase metre between N131,150 and N142,548.94 and N220,375—N232,008.04 for three-phase metres.

This recent move came months after the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) announced the deregulation of metre prices under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme for end-user customers.

It said this is to address the protracted issues around metre supply and pricing within the sector.

With the development, DisCos and metre vendors can now fix prices based on the economic realities in the country, helping investors recover their money and ensuring the availability of the metres.

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Tax Reforms: Ndume Mocks Tinubu, Says Bill Dead on Arrival

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The Senator representing Borno South Senatorial District in the National Assembly (NASS), Ali Ndume, has declared that the tax reform bills sent to the legislative arm of government by President Bola Tinubu are dead on arrival.

Ndume argued that the President should listen to the National Economic Council (NEC) and the Northern Governors’ Forum and immediately withdraw the bills.

“If it goes on like that, I can tell you that it will be dead on arrival. We don’t need to study the bills,” the unsparingly blunt lawmaker said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.

Ndume, one of the longest serving lawmakers in the National Assembly, said the Federal government should be looking at ways to reduce the tax burden on Nigerians and not increase it.

“The general thing is that Nigerians are not willing to talk about or pay any tax now considering the (economic) situation we are in now,” he said.

“Nigerians are willing to pay taxes but they can only pay taxes when they can afford it. Right now, people are struggling to survive. Let people live first before you start asking them for taxes,” he added.

The senator said: “It will be fair to shut the bill down; it is the fairest thing to do”, indicating that he has started campaigning against the bills among his colleagues and he is getting good support to throw out the bills.

Ndume, a stalwart of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC),  said the Tinubu administration needs to reform itself and not increase taxes paid by Nigerians.

“What he (Tinubu) needs to do is to withdraw the bill, educate Nigerians and make us understand it. We are representing the people and the people that we are representing have already spoken.

“The governors, the traditional rulers have said that the bill is not good. So, the best thing to do is to immediately withdraw it.

“Right now, what our people are saying is that they don’t want VAT bill, they don’t even want to hear about it. That is why we are going to make it dead on arrival.”

The tax reform bills which have been sent to the National Assembly have faced scathing criticisms with the 36 state governors asking the President to withdraw the bills from the legislature.

However, the President insisted that the bills would not be withdrawn, saying that “inputs and necessary changes” can be made by the lawmakers.

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