UNDP Commits $50,000 To Support Nigeria’s Nature-positive MSMEs

The United Nations Improvement Programme (UNDP), by its International Setting Facility-Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP), has dedicated $50,000 to kick-start a nationwide initiative aimed toward supporting nature-positive Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.

The venture, unveiled in Abuja yesterday, will probably be carried out by the Worldwide Commerce Facilitators Affiliation (ITFA), concentrating on at the very least 470 MSMEs throughout all six geopolitical zones for 9 months.

Launched beneath Help to Potential and Established Nature-Optimistic MSMEs (SPENM), the initiative seeks to empower environmentally sustainable companies by coaching, market entry facilitation and preparation for international certification requirements.

Commerce Ambassador of ITFA, Collins Ezeiruaku, mentioned the venture is designed in response to many years of unsustained interventions within the MSME sector and the necessity to construct a long-lasting framework for non-oil exports and nature-friendly enterprise.

“We conceived this venture not simply to supply capability constructing however to stroll hand-in-hand with MSMEs from manufacturing to market entry.  We’re concentrating on these enterprises that instantly affect communities like farmers, fishermen, and small-scale processors, serving to them turn out to be sustainable whereas contributing to environmental conservation, ” he mentioned.

In accordance with Ezeiruaku, the $50,000 seed fund from UNDP will probably be launched in three tranches based mostly on efficiency milestones. As well as, he mentioned that the venture has attracted one other $50,000 price of in-kind contributions, together with logistics help, teaching, and amenities from accomplice organisations.

Ezeiruaku careworn the significance of the initiative, including that it aimed to construct capability amongst nature-positive MSMEs, outlined as companies that combine environmental sustainability into their operations, akin to renewable vitality use, waste discount, and conservation.

Notably, at the very least 30 per cent of the beneficiaries will probably be ladies, with devoted inclusion for youth, indigenous peoples and individuals with disabilities.

The UNDP’s programme assistant to the Nationwide Coordinator of GEF-SGP, Rose Agbo, mentioned the fund is catalytic in nature, supposed to draw future investments and allow beneficiaries to entry bigger growth funding.

“Our imaginative and prescient is to convey out the enterprise elements from our sustainability interventions, it’s about reworking social affect into lasting livelihoods, the place communities personal the method and the income, ” she mentioned.

Agbo additionally confirmed that a number of previous tasks beneath the GEF-SGP framework have been efficiently upscaled, replicated and linked to broader growth networks.