Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) has said that over 2500 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria would benefit from $3.5 million that would be disbursed by the agency within two years.

The managing director/chief executive of AEA, Shehu Abdulkadir made this known at the flagging off of the 10th edition of Business 360, with the theme: Technology Utilisation and Innovation: Its Effect On SME Profitability and Productivity, organised by Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA).

He said that in December 2022, the agency disbursed almost N200m to over 888 SMEs in Abuja, and hopefully, by April 2023, they are going to disburse the next batch of grants to SMEs.

According to Abdulkadir, the disbursement is a two-year project and at the end of the project, they are expected to disburse about N3.5 million USD to over 2500 SMEs in Abuja.

“I am happy to say that all the stakeholders from different associations and establishments have benefited from these grants being disbursed by the agency from the World Bank and I am very optimistic as we get towards the next phase, we are going to get more people from diverse stakeholders across all the six area councils of the FCT.

“We have a lot of events targeted at women and it may interest you to know that in Abuja Enterprise Agency most of our project activities have deliberately been planned to target not less than 60 percent women.

“We have 55 percent of the beneficiaries to be women, and I will like to assure you that as we move on, we are going to ensure that the numbers are scaled up to ensure that we meet up with our 60% target,” he said.

He further explained that the 360 business is an event that brings on board stakeholders from the regulatory agencies and as well as SMEs, for the SMEs and the regulatory agencies to be on one platform discussing the SME ecosystem as it relates to them.

“The theme, which has to do with Technology adaptability towards the profitability of SMEs, is very apt because COVID has brought a lot of disruption and one of the disruptions is that you have to adapt the technology for you to be profitable and successful in your business.

“That is why in the MKS projects, which are aimed at supporting recovery of SMEs from the COVID pandemic that Abuja Enterprise Agency is handling in the FCT, one of the critical areas is supporting SMEs with technology enhancement that will lead them towards helping them towards recovery from the pandemic other aspects are credit grants, for those that have access facilities from financial institutions.

“The first category, which is overhead grants to support SMEs that are affected by the pandemic, with salaries and wages, utility bills and the like,” he said.