The Federal Government has announced plans to reward the winner of the 2025 National Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Award with prizes worth over N220m, while other categories will go home with prizes worth over N50 million.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Job Creation and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, Temitola Adekunle-Johnson, revealed this during a press briefing on Monday in Abuja to announce the eighth edition of the National MSMEs Award.
He said grand winner will be rewarded with a house, shops, cars and cash prizes as part of events to mark the 2025 MSMEs Week.
The MSMEs award is designed to commemorate the 2024 United Nations World MSMES Day as part of efforts to recognise and support outstanding small businesses in the country.
Adekunle-Johnson also revealed that the portal for registration and entries will be opened for all Nigerian businesses to register from Friday, 7th March 2025, to 7th April 2025.
According to him, President Bola Tinubu’s government is committed to putting smiles on the faces of Nigerians.
He added that businesses of persons with disabilities will be recognised for their contribution to Nigeria’s economy.
The special assistant said, “As part of our mandate to continuously improve, we have considered businesses of people living with disabilities. So, the PWDs category will be included. They have opportunities to compete for the various prizes.
“The overall person will go home with at least a total value of N220m, whilst the other categories might be going home with things worth maybe N70m in each of the 10 categories.”
Adekunle-Johnson also announced that President Tinubu has raised the support for outstanding MSMEs to N300,000 from N150,000.
“So, it means that if you are an MSME in a clinic and your products are deemed outstanding, you can get a grant. So, it is part of this administration’s efforts to continue to ensure that micro-SMEs become small businesses and that small businesses aspire to be large businesses.”
The screening committee is made up of the National Information Technology Development Agency, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria, the Bank of Industry, and other key government agencies.