The Federal Government says 2.3 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have accessed the interest-free loans under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) between 2016 and 2020.
Similarly,109,823 beneficiaries from batches A and B of the N-Power scheme have set up businesses in their communities.
The Minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, disclosed this while speaking in Abuja on Friday.
Umar-Farouq said GEEP provided loans between N10,000 and N300,000 to traders, artisans, enterprising youths, agricultural workers and other micro-service providers.
Since its inception in 2016 to date, GEEP has empowered over 2.3 million such micro-enterprises with interest-free loans to grow their businesses,” Umar-Farouq said.
On the school feeding programme, Umar-Farouq said the total number of children enrolled on the programme was 9,196,823, as verified by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
“It is worthy of note that at the onset of the pandemic, the national social register contained data of over 2.6 million poor and vulnerable households (with over 11 million individuals) across 34 states and the federal capital territory (FCT),” she said.
“With the accelerated registration and rapid expansion, the register has, as at June 30, grown to 3.7 million (equivalent to 15.5 million individuals) across 36 states and the FCT.”
She said the Federal Government was working to ensure the establishment of the national disability commission and the take-off of the national senior citizen’s centre.
