Some months ago, the Federal Government as part of the National response to the Covid 19 Pandemic launched series of programmes to cushion the effects of the pandemic on Small businesses.
One of the components of the programme is Payroll Support. It is imagined that due to the pandemic some small private businesses couldn’t met up with salary obligations.
The Governor of Abia State assigned the coordination of that programme in the State to the Abia State Social Investment Programme Office.
Through various negotiations, we were able to secure the 3rd highest slots in the country only after Lagos and Kano.
We are glad to report that out of the 16,200 slots meant for Abia State 7,697 staff of various private business organisations in Abia State have received 30,000 Naira each for 3 months being salary payment to support those organisation that had challenges meeting salary payment obligations. Available data show that 56% of beneficiaries are Female while 44% are male.
In the light of above, the Focal Person Chinenye Nwaogu on the directive of the Governor has concluded arrangements with the Project Delivery Office of Federal Government to open the portal for One Week to enable businesses in Abia fill the online form to make up the remaining 8,503 slots. This is to make sure that Abia does not loose a single slot under the scheme.
The State Focal Person Chinenye Nwaogu thank Mr President for sustaining the Scheme and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State for providing the enabling resources and support to our office to undertake this task that has put so much smiles on the faces of Abia.
Godwin Okeagu
Abia SIP Office