The Odu’a Investment Company Limited and the Nigerian Office for Philanthropy and Impact Investing have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide grants for MSMEs in South West states.
The MoU was signed by officials of both organisations at the Job creation and MSME Secretariat, BOI Building, CBD, Abuja, on Tuesday.
It is geared towards providing funding for startups in order to develop and grow businesses in critical sectors, including agriculture, renewable energy, fashion and furniture manufacturing.
The MoU also intends to ensure parties work together towards providing funding for businesses in the six South West states to spur socio-economic growth of the region for enhanced contribution to national economy.
Chairperson of the Nigeria Office for Philanthropy and Impact Investing, Mrs Thelma Ekiyor-Solanke, said the MoU was part of roadmap towards ensuring the office fulfill its mandate by working with relevant stakeholders.
“We are pleased to work with our first batch of partners, engaging in different areas of interest, so that when each person brings what they are good at, we get a whole.
“We hope that through this partnership we will be able to unlock skills and capacity-building advantages.
“After this, we hope it will encourage more and more people to partner with the government in this area because the high rate of unemployment has caused social problems and insecurity,” she said.
Group Managing Director/CEO, Odu’a Investment Company Limited, Abdulrahman Yinusa, who signed on behalf of the group, said the execution of the MOU was very important to achieve “impact investing” in the South West states.
“We see economic development as an essential combination between meeting statistics and also achieving social goals. So, this partnership is supposed to give us an opportunity to actually have what we call impact investing.
“In impact investing, you want to go beyond the profit and loss, and go into how much people are getting employed and how sustainable are the developments.
“This partnership is supposed to help go beyond making money but, to get jobs for our people and also look after the environment.
“You will recall that Odu’a Investment is owned by the six South West states, and first thing we are going to do is to create a platform whereby we will be able to engage all the economic agents within the South West.
“This will enable us to participate in activities that will not only grow the economy, but will also create jobs for our people,” he said.
Earlier in his remark, Tola Johnson, Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Job Creation and MSMEs, said the MoU was a milestone towards realising the president’s commitment to job creation.
He, therefore, called for commitment from all partners to ensure that the targeted sectors benefit from the presidential intervention for a better life for Nigerians.
The Nigeria Philanthropy Office is a private-led coordinating office, situated in the Office of the Vice President to drive philanthropic support for MSMEs for targeted sectors that have high job creation potential.
The office is aligned with the job creation vision of President Tinubu, and the administration’s ongoing work with MSMEs in terms of job creation by working with donors, impact investors, financial institutions and foundations.
