KanInvest & Diaspora, in partnership with UK-based company, LINKS and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has secured a whopping N10 billion intervention fund from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in a bid to revive companies that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The revival project tagged: “Turnaround Project,” is targeting at least 50 companies that had been affected by the pandemic, but not totally collapsed for the intervention.
Speaking at the opening of a sensitisation meeting on Kano State Turnaround Project, held at government house yesterday, the director-general of the KanInvest & Diaspora, Hama Ali Ware, said the programme is to facilitate the turnaround objectives of various companies that had been affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
She said the project entails the support of funds and professionals to chart way of how to revive the affected companies in order to continue flourishing in the state, which has made name as the commercial hub of northern Nigeria.
According to her, the CBN initially donated the sum of N10 billion to the agency for take off of the project, adding that the apex bank agreed to add more funds if there is need.
She explained that the agency would interface with the affected companies on one-by-one basis to get information about the problem it is facing and see the ways to support it.
“We will sit down and discuss with the companies, one by one, not crowd. Through that way, we will gather information about the problem of a company and see the way to support it.
“KanInvest & Diaspora, in collaboration with MAN and LINKS decided to come up with this initiative in order to support our affected industries because it is a worrisome situation to see industries affected by COVID-19 and other problems are not functioning in Kano, which is known as the commercial nerve centre of northern Nigeria,” she said
The DG also explained that the agency had produced what she described as expression of interest form for interested companies, announcing that the deadline day for the submission of the application is February 25, 2021.
She further explained that the door would be open to any company until the application reached at least fifty, adding that “from then, we will see if they could exhaust the N10 billion or not.”
