FG SEEKS ONE-YEAR EXTENSION OF WORLD BANK’S $160M JOB CREATION FUND

Following its inability to disburse $160m job creation funding provided by the World Bank, the Federal Government has sought for 12 months extension to enable it to fully implement the project known as Growth and Employment in States.

The objective of the GEMS project is to accelerate growth and employment in participating states. Under the project being supervised by Ministry of Finance and implemented by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, grants are given to deserving Small and Medium-scale Enterprises to support growth and employment. Although the project is supposed to come to an end on Friday, only N3.7bn representing about 7.58 per cent of the fund (N48.8bn) has been disbursed within the period of five years that the implementation of the project began.

Some of the fund, at least $8.5m, has been expended on securing training for potential beneficiaries, consultancy services and on procuring personnel for the project.

One of the people who worked on stopping the demonstration was Rita Nduonofit, a GEMS participant, who is also waiting to get the fund she applied for to boost her French fries’ business. She confirmed to one of our correspondents in Abuja that she worked on aborting the planned demonstration in order to avoid anything that could jeopardise the granting of an extension by the World Bank.

In a response to enquiries by our correspondents, the World Bank office in Nigeria said through Funke Olufon that it was currently in discussions with the Federal Government regarding the extension of the project’s closing date, adding that any update on agreed decisions could be obtained from the Federal Government.

However, it was learnt that instead of the 12-month extension being sought by the government, six months might be granted.

(Punch)