The President of UNIC Foundation, Dr. Christopher Imumolen has said that over 4 million entrepreneurs in Nigeria would benefit annually from the ongoing business supports designed by his organization to create jobs and eradicate poverty in Nigeria.
He made this known at a press briefing organised recently in Lagos to sensitise Nigerians on the efforts being made by the organisation to make life easy for Nigerians who are willing to start-up something for themselves.
He said that, “We discovered that over 70 million Nigerians are unemployed and underemployed. The recent statistic claimed that Nigeria is one of the most difficult places to live. So who should the people run to? Is it the government that is still busy with security challenges in the country?
“For us at Unic Foundation, we came up with a system that supports numerous Nigerians by giving them grants to grow their businesses.
“The grant is between N200,000 to N5 million; we have approved over N500,000 to 500 people from March to May 2019. Our target is to support 4 million businesses in a year. It is a grant not a loan, because they are not paying back; it’s 100 per cent free. This is our way of giving back to the society,” he said.
Imumolen urged Nigerians with businesses or viable business ideas to visit the foundation’s website to apply for the grant to enhance their businesses so as to address the challenges of unemployment in the country.
He assured applicants that the Foundation will provide them free basic mentorship programme on business management and create market for their products.
He urged the Federal Government to provide tax waiver for new MSMEs in the country to ensure survival of those businesses.
“Government needs to create enabling environment for business to strive and one of the ways is by giving tax waiver when entrepreneurs create amenities that should be created by the government. For instance there should be tax waiver for people that are using generators to run their businesses,” he said.
The President identified unfavourable economic situation and lack of trust as the major problems responsible for unemployment in the country.
“We have so many vacancies but we are afraid to fully employ because of previous experiences we had with people,” he said.
