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Tag: #Owan Enoh

  • Owan Enoh MSME Support Program – How The Beneficiaries Will Be Selected.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    Owan Enoh MSME Support Program – How The Beneficiaries Will Be Selected.. BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    Entries for the Owan Enoh MSME Support Program have swelled over 12,000. This demonstrates not just acceptance but also exposes the yawning desire for a helping hand by Cross Riverians.

    I am also sure that many Cross Riverians are already wondering how exactly will beneficiaries be selected from such a massive pool. Many who think some privileged assessors will grab their pens to tick as many names off and plant their favored winners, have been calling, chatting and texting to lobby, to no avail. But I want to give you an idea of the painstaking work that is ongoing behind the scenes by the team that is assessing the entries.

    Stage One: CATEGORIZATION

    The entries are all being categorized into 14 different sectors, namely: Agriculture, Construction, Creative Arts, Education, Energy, Fashion Designing, Financial Services, Healthcare, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Retail, ICT, Transportation, and Others. All these fourteen sectors have their drop down sub-sectors.

    Stage Two: ELIGIBILITY SCREENING

    This involves a general assessment using simple Yes/No responses. Any application that receives five (5) or more “No” responses will be automatically disqualified.

    Applications with more “Yes” responses will advance to the next stage.

    Some of the queries include:
    1. Residency / Location: Is the applicant or business based in Cross River State?
    ☐ Yes ☐ No

    2. MSME Definition:
    Does the business qualify as a micro, small, or medium enterprise (not a large enterprise)?
    ☐ Yes ☐ No

    3. Sector Fit:
    Does the business fall within target sectors (trade, industry, services, artisanship, agriculture, etc.)?
    ☐ Yes ☐ No

    4. Business Status:
    Is the business operational or is the business idea viable?
    ☐ Yes ☐ No

    5. Documentation:
    Has the applicant provided at least one proof of business (CAC registration, tax ID, cooperative membership, trade association ID, or any verifiable evidence)?
    ☐ Yes ☐ No

    6. Application Completeness:
    Is the application form properly completed (all required fields answered, supporting documents attached)?
    ☐ Yes ☐ No

    7. Previous Support:
    Has the applicant declared that they are not currently benefitting from another government MSME grant/loan that would make them ineligible for this fund?
    ☐ Yes ☐ No

    This stage is expected to reduce the number of entries to a manageable size of 3000-4000.

    Stage Three: APPRAISAL TEMPLATE

    This is the stage that involves the detailed scoring of each application. Applications are evaluated using the full scoring template. A 75% score serves as the cut-off mark for consideration.

    Each panel member independently scores the applications assigned to them and to ensure fairness and transparency, 15%–20% of each panelist’s assessment is randomly reassigned to another panelist for re-evaluation.

    This process helps us maintain integrity, fairness, and objectivity, ultimately leading to a near-perfect selection outcome.

    Some of the appraisal queries include:

    Business viability and feasibility, assess operations, sustainability
    (0-20).

    Clarity of concept, defined problem, feasibility, job creation and employment potential (0-15).

    Current and future staff, realistic market potential and growth prospects (0-15).

    Actual market performance, market research, identified customers, demand validation, financial management and sustainability (0-15).

    Cost structure, revenue model, funding strategy, social impact and inclusiveness (0-10).

    Intended or actual community/social benefits, innovation and creativity (0-10).

    Stronger emphasis for new business ideas: novelty, originality, problem-solving approach alignment with Owan Enoh MSME Fund objectives (0-10).

    CAC, Tax, NAFDAC, proposed business name readiness. Documentation and compliance (0-5)

    Total score, out of 100, will determine the final recommendation.

    Assessors have been duly briefed on prioritizing gender inclusion and urban-rural balance in the final selection to ensure fair spread between Calabar, other urban centers, and rural LGAs.

    Note again that no beneficiary in the formal sector will be given any cash. Whatever the applicants stated as the needs of their business will be procured and supplied to them. The same applies to the informal sector unless successful applicants who deal on perishable wares.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

    (more…)

  • On Owan Enoh’s N500m Business Grant for Cross Riverians BY PETER INYALI 

     

    During former Governor Ben Ayade’s first term, despite being one of his vociferous critics, I appreciated his idea of boosting people’s purchasing power to stimulate economic growth through his “food on the table” policy. However, I opposed distributing money without requiring value in return, as it’s unsustainable and risks economic drawbacks.

    Without a doubt, purchasing power is a key driver of consumer behaviour and economic growth. When households have more income, they buy more goods and services, increasing demand. Yet, handouts without productivity can destabilize the economy.

    While putting money in the hands of people or food on the table was good, making them accountable by encouraging value for the money was even better. This was what inspired me to share my idea for the restructuring of the policy to something more sustainable and beneficial to both the people and the government. In a private message to the then Governor, I proposed the creation of a “Cross River Business Support Fund” instead of treating public appointments as job creation or encouraging dependency.

    The idea was to calculate the total value of appointees’ payments over their tenure and provide it as business startup capital under strict oversight. I suggested that the state could secure a bank facility that can be repaid monthly with funds that would have gone to appointees salaries to ensure no debt burden for the next administration.
    Each appointee was to receive at least N5m capital to establish small business, with each venture creating one or two additional jobs. For instance, for 5,000 appointees, this could have directly and indirectly generate at least 10,000 jobs.

    When my private suggestion was ignored, I published articles advocating for this. I had hoped that a government official who had the Governor’s ears could pick it up and convince him that it was more sustainable than the free money policy, but the suggestion, as many others from other patriotic Cross Riverians was ignored.

    Nevertheless, it gladdens my heart that years later, the Honourable Minister of State, Industry, Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Sen. John Owan Enoh is set to launch a N500m business grant for Cross Riverians; a commendable step towards building an alternative economy for our people. This programme, understood to be a private initiative stands as the largest single individual support for businesses in Cross River State.

    Beyond this, the Minister has also facilitated soft loans from the Bank of Industry for so many startups and existing businesses in the state. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbones of any economy as they are vital for job creation. Unarguably, these initiatives; the loans and business grants will boost employment and purchasing power in the state. This didn’t come as a surprise as the Minister’s public service life has been defined by commitments to create sustainable jobs for the people than anything else.

    As Cross Riverians look up to the success of the programme which will be unveiled formally on Friday in Calabar, the Minister deserves all the praises for promoting entrepreneurship as a solution for rapid economic growth in a state heavily reliant on civil service and politics. Kudos to him.

    Inyali Peter, Ph.D.

    Disclaimer: The opinion expressed in this article is strictly that of the author, Peter Inyali, and does not represent TheLumineNews, its agent or the organization the author works for.

  • OWAN-ENOH MSME Support, A N500m Chance To Leap… BY AGBA JALINGO 

     

    Barring any last minute changes, on Thursday August 28, 2025, (next tomorrow), the Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh-JOE, will be unveiling the OWAN-MSME Support Initiative for Cross Riverians and non Cross Riverians living in Cross River, who are actively running their small businesses or intending to start a viable new small business idea in or outside the State.

    This is actually a private intervention by the Minister, aimed at seeing how people who have no real active interest in day-to-day politics can be assisted to create an alternative economy in Cross River state in particular. The program scope is targeting both people in the formal and informal sectors of the economy who are truly doing business or want to run small businesses and a total of 500 million Naira will be up for grabs by 1000 enterpreneurs in four different phases.

    Details of how to apply and how beneficiaries will be selected will be made public after the Minister has done the unveiling on Thursday in Calabar, the Cross River State capital. But I will give you some heads up to prepare you:

    Yours sincerely, will be fully involved in this project from beginning to end for two reasons; namely, everything that sounds progressive has a special appeal and a magnetic effect over me. I have always and all the time, felt that until Cross River State moves towards creating an alternative economy outside politics, where young people can have another chance to earn a meaningful living and get a sense of worth and importance, then everyone will graduate from school and continue to seek to be SSA or SA or PA to a politician, because at the moment, that is the only economy our State has and that is the only arena where people think they can find their self worth.

    Secondly, over time, we have been able to develop tech processes that bring transparency, fairness and accountability to these kind of ideas and projects. This speaks to the inefficiencies that have characterized these laudable interventions and ripped them of their benefits and impacts in the medium and long term. These processes that we bring to the table aren’t perfect, but they stand shoulders above what obtains and are poised to improve as we continue to be availed of the opportunity to test them.

    The confidence of State and non State actors in us to give us the privilege to try these ideas is also posing a massive challenge to our long standing advocacy for sanity, good governance and fight against corruption, and we hope that results will continue to inspire others.

    The bane of these interventions has primarily been the corruption and sleeze associated with the processes and the misapplication of the proceeds of the interventions by the beneficiaries, who mostly emerge by cronyism and not by merit. And this has to be cleaned up or bypassed.

    This time, amongst other roles, yours sincerely will be leading a panel of six seasoned technocrats and enterprise development specialists that will assess and select beneficiaries via a transparent, accountable and verifiable process.

    Members of the team and everyone on board this project has committed to ensuring this effort will be handled differently to maximize the success rate remarkably and the Minister has also promised the team a free hand and breathing space to undertake this task without any form of political encumbrance and beyond political divides.

    So watch this space for more and avoid going into my inbox to lobby or start any conversation on this topic.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • Bassey Otu Wins Owan Enoh As Court Declares Him As Authentic Guber Candidate Of The APC

    Culled From Parchment

    The legal tussle to determine who is the authentic gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Party in Cross River State has been completely put to rest.

    In a judgement delivered few moments ago, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the federal high court ruled that Sen. Prince Bassey Edet Otu was the authentic candidate of the party having met the basic constitutional requirements to contest the position.

    She also ruled that counsel to the 1st defendant has convinced the court that Sen. Otu was fully cleared by his party and scored the highest number of votes at the primary election held in June 2022.

    According to Justice Ojukwu who “ no where in the affidavits submitted by the plaintiff showed that the 3rd defendant was disqualified “

    She ruled that a candidate contesting for a the position of a governor must be a Nigerian, meet the stipulated age requirement and have basic qualification according to the constitution. She said the matter to determine the gubernatorial candidate of a political party is and still remains the right of a political party.

    The judgement effectively lay to rest the contention of who is the authentic candidate of the Cross River State APC.

    Mr. Owan Enoh in a suit number FHC/CA/CS/95/2022 had dragged, the APC, INEC and Sen. Prince Otu to court, demanding among other things, to be declared winner of the May 26 party primaries, citing the fact that 3rd defendant was not duely cleared by the party

  • Owan Enoh Insists That The One Form For APC Governorship Must Be Purchased In His Name