President Bola Tinubu has said the N200 billion Consumer Credit Corporation established by his administration would make life easier for millions of households.
Tinubu said this in a national broadcast on Sunday addressing the ongoing nationwide protest.
He said the aim of the scheme was to help Nigerians acquire essential products without immediate cash payments.
This, he said, would consequently reduce corruption and eliminate cash and opaque transactions.
“This week, I ordered the release of an additional N50 billion each for NELFUND—the student loan scheme—and the Credit Corporation from the proceeds of crime recovered by the EFCC.
“Additionally, we have secured 620 million dollars under the Digital and Creative Enterprises (IDiCE)—a programme to empower our young people, creating millions of IT and technical jobs that will make them globally competitive.
“These programmes include the 3 Million Technical Talents scheme. Unfortunately, one of the digital centres was vandalised during the protests in Kano. What a shame!” he said.
In addition, he said the government had introduced the Skill-Up Artisans Programme (SUPA), the Nigerian Youth Academy (NIYA), and the National Youth Talent Export Programme (NATEP).
He also said more than N570 billion had been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support for their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses had benefited from nano-grants.
He stated that an additional 400,000 nano-businesses were expected to benefit from the programme.
“Furthermore, 75,000 beneficiaries have been processed to receive our N1 million Micro and Small Business single-digit interest loans starting this month.
“We have also built 10 MSME hubs within the past year, created 240,000 jobs through them, and five more hubs are in progress, which will be ready by October this year,” he said.
According to Tinubu, payments of N1 billion each are also being made to large manufacturers under single-digit loans to boost manufacturing output and stimulate growth.