By Dada Ahmed.
Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has advised about 60,000 beneficiaries of ICT tools in the state not to sell them but use the equipment to revamp their various small scale businesses affected by COVID-19,four years ago.
Bello gave advice on Monday at the government house, Lokoja while distributing the items to the beneficiaries, represented by the Secretary to the State Government , SSG, Dr.Folashade Arike Ayoade.
“The ICT tools given to you are to enhance business your business. They cannot be sold or given out.
“From what the Managing Director of Kogi State Enterprise Agency, KEDA, told us, you will always be checked upon to make sure that the tools are used for the purpose intended.
“Apart from the World Bank checking on the beneficiaries, we will also create a committee in the state to monitor how they use the tools to enhance their businesses.
Bello further told the beneficiaries that the tools were also meant to ensure that the turn over or output of their business increases, reduce poverty and improve the economy of the state.
He added that by adhering to the purpose of the tools, they would encourage the state to do more for them, including assisting them with money as the case could be.
Giving an overview of RA3 and its DLI pact and What Next, the MD/CEO/KEDA/Coordinator,KG-, CARE RA3, Hajia Rekiya Onaivo Sanni, said KG-CAREs is a programme collaboration with the World Bank being facilitated across Nigeria with kogi state as one of the implemeting partners.
The MD recalled that with the negative impact of COVID-19 on many companies, especially the small scale businesses globally, Nigerian governors approached the World Bank to see how such businesses could be revamped.
She said the World Bank told the governor to work out plans, on how to revive the small businesses in their states, consequent on the impact of COVID-19, stressing that they must stick to eligibility criteria before the global would reinburse them.
On ICT tools, the coordinator said that they were meant to enable the beneficiaries tap the potential inherent in ICT tools to resale their businesses which went down during COVID-19 and to earn a living.
She promised that KEDA would soon embark on sensitization programme to enlighten beneficiaries on various ways they could use the ICT for self actualisation and boost the economy of the state.
The KEDA boss said that the handing over of the tools to the beneficiaries is a contract they entered into with the the state government, adding that the manner they would use the tools for the purpose intended would determine how they would benefit from other programmes from the Agency.
One of the beneficiaries of ICT distribution, Hajia Maimuna Bashir of NEABS ENTERPRISES, dealing Cement and building materials in Lokoja, in an interview with our correspondent, described the distribution of the ICT tools as a well come development.
Hajia Maimuna, who was given an HP laptop and POS machine said,” We thank KEDA for the transparency adopted in the selection process and Kogi state government for this gesture.
“The ICT tools will go along in boosting my business in many ways.
Beneficiaries drawn from the 21 local government areas of the state attended the event while troupe of the State Council for Arts and Culture thrilled the audience with dancing depicting the rich culture and tradition of the of the state.
