Cross River State government has signed a matching fund collaboration of N1billion with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, for the development of MSMEs in the state.

The state governor, Senator Bassey Otu made the commitment in Abuja when he hosted a delegation of SMEDAN, led by the Director General/ Chief Executive Officer, Mr Charles Odii.

The governor maintained that his administration was committed to providing support for the growth and development of new and existing MSMEs in the state through providing enterprise training, capacity building, business development support at the Cross River State Entrepreneurship Development Cente, CRSEDC, and access to affordable finance, monitoring and evaluation.

He disclosed that Cross River State Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency, MEDA, would be the special purpose vehicle, SPV, to act as implementing agency on behalf of the state government.

In his remarks, the Director General/Chief Executive Officer of SMEDAN, Charles Odii, said the collaboration with the federal agency was aimed at harnessing a pool of resources and strengthening entrepreneurial development services by linking entrepreneurial training with finance for the overall development of Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Cross River State.

Aside from the governor, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, had Mr. Great Ogban Usetu, the Director General, Cross River State Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency co-signed on behalf of the state, while the DG/ CEO, and the legal officer of SMEDAN, Mr. Charles Odii, and Mr Yusuf Salman respectively signed for the agency.