Accounting 101: How to Track Your Business Finances in the First Year

Accounting 101: How to Track Your Business Finances in the First Year

by with No Comment Businessfinancestartup tips

If you’re running your new business with little or no attention to expenses tracking, you’re flying blind. 

The future of your business’s sustainability is anchored on your attitude to financial tracking.

It takes patience following rigorous steps to stabilize the future of your business.

You don’t need to be an expert in accounting and bookkeeping before you sustain your new business. You only need the information to succeed in your business finance.

In this post, I will show you how you can track your business finance in the first year. 

What is Financial Tracking in Business?

Financial Tracking, also known as Expense Tracking, is a process of keeping records of your income and expenditure on a regular basis. 

This is possible by monitoring every financial event associated with your business in a documentary form, ideally on a daily basis.

Financial activities monitoring happens by recording receipts, invoices, and business expenses into some form of the accounting ledger. 

It gives you the information on whether you’re making a profit or a loss. And it works along with budgeting, which serves as a guide for your spending.

Why You Should Track Your Business Finance

Common value among business owners is to secure a prospective future for their investments. Meanwhile, your confidence in the future of your new business is tied to the benefits you stand to enjoy as you track your business finance. 

Tracking your business finance;

Makes you a better money manager

The only instrument that can give you the confidence to stay on top of your budget, as a business owner, is through Financial Tracking. This could be on a daily, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis, depending on your business needs. 

Prepares you for tax season

Tracking your business finance will always set you on alert to be ready for your tax expenses. It reduces the time taken to prepare for this and secures your prime hours which could be invested in another aspect of the business growth.

Also, you have an idea ahead about what’s deductible for tax. You only need to approach your accountant to get a detailed list of tax-deductible business expenses.

Makes you reimburse your employees for any extra spending

This is one of the ways to build trust and commitment in the minds of your employees. They will develop the spirit of fair treatment in the course of their duties. This is one of the keys to move your business forward.

Eases your business forecasting

Flying blind in a business is disastrous to the future of that business. If your business finance is well tracked, you’ve paved the way for future stability. This is because it enables you to envision the complete picture of your business in the nearest future. As such, your business is secured with an awesome landing.

Financial tracking can make you determine the profitability of your business. This will assist you to offer your investors a better idea of your business revenue.

Opens your eyes to identify growth opportunities

If you track your financial activities, it will not only reveal the future prospects but also tap your consciousness against the potential threats that can mar your financial engagement. 

Devising mechanisms to control the future obstacles, you identify growth opportunities which, if you leverage, your business will grow at a steady pace.

How to track your business finance (step-by-step Guide)

Tracking your business expenses is as important as other plannings like; business and strategic planning all of which are tailored towards the security of your business in the future.

Either you aim at getting the true picture of where your money is going or preparing for tax season, tracking your finances in and outflow is very crucial. Here are a few step-by-step to get it done:

1. Open A Bank Account

It’s wise of you as a business owner to keep your business income and expenses separate from personal and domestic finance. If you don’t have a sense of the disparity between the two, your business treasury is in the line. Plus, your personal financial engagement would be threatened all the time.

2. Select Cash or Accrual Accounting

Choose the appropriate account for your business from the cash and accrual accounting system just because it’s simple. The important thing is to opt for the most appropriate one to the level of your business.

Using cash accounting, you record transactions as they occur. You get to record your income when you receive money on sales and your expense when you payout.

However, accrual accounting has a more in-depth modality. You record your income as the product is sold, not until the payment is made to your account. The same thing happens to the expenses, take your record when you have the bill not when you pay.

Accrual accounting is part and parcel of the businesses with employees, large-scale businesses, and growing ventures.

3. Use A Cloud-Compliant Software

A cloud-based accounting tool is available to make your financial tracking activities very interesting. With this program, you can track your business finance anywhere at any time.

Also, it enables you to manage your business account, make it receivable and payable as the case may be.

Though, you have a choice to select from tons of this software that are available, ensure you choose the best for your business. You can, as well, use spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel to keep track of your business finance.

4. Connect your Account with Financial institutions 

This process makes it very easy to track all the expenses incurred by your business. Some businesses may be skeptical about this though, the truth is that it’s very safe, with in-built programs to protect your data.

Connecting your bank will avail you the opportunity to download all banking transactions automatically to your accounting software, and in some cases, have them automatically posted to the appropriate account.

5. Manage your receipt properly

Use the mobile app that is compliant with your accounting software program. In case the software doesn’t support it, choose to use an expense management application that will comply with your software.

With this, you can easily take a picture of your receipt and upload it on your software, store it for onward attachment to the appropriate expense.

6. Be Swift in Your Record Taking

You have learned in accounting 101 that your tracking records must take care of all the income and expenses. If you choose to connect your financial institutions to your software account, the process becomes daily automated.

Though, you need to set up your account properly to enjoy adequate allocation of the uploaded transactions. 

Some applications accept manual data entry and some are automatic. You choose the suitable one for your business. 

Whatever system you embrace, take a record of all your expenses promptly. Completing your bank reconciliations on a monthly basis helps to ensure that all transactions have been properly accounted for.

Conclusion

No doubt that your almost motive in your new business is formed around future stability. However, you can’t achieve this without proper knowledge of the financial flow of your investment.

If you track your business finances, you will envision the future of your new business from the first year of the setup. With this, you get control of every operation attached to money.

Now, follow the steps in this post and stay on top of the financial movement in your new business.

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How to Track, Plan, and Prepare your Small Business Budget

How to Track, Plan, and Prepare your Small Business Budget

by with No Comment Businessfinancesme tipsstartup tips

Running a business is tough. 

This is because, with the ever-growing operational demands, it’s easy to run out of money. Lack of proper financial planning and budgeting, an unprepared business owner can run into debt within split seconds. 

Even in developed countries like the US, 64% of small business owners begin with $10,000 in capital, and reports state that only 40% of these businesses are profitable.

So that begs the question, “Where did the money go?”

Many business owners only keep an eagle eye on their monthly account balance but this doesn’t save their business if they don’t correctly track, plan and budget their business.

In this post, I will show you how to track, plan and prepare your small business budget so that you can steer your business towards success in the coming years.

But before then,

Why Should You Set Budgets And Track Your Small Business    

Setting a budget and tracking the expenses of your small business will help you stay on top of your business numbers. This spreadsheet will open up your current operating costs and sales, that way, you can be sure that you have enough money to keep your business running.

It will also help you to prepare solutions to potential problems. That unexpected information of increased rent or seasonal drop in sales can be daunting, but having your financials right will guide you on where to see the extra cash to cover the loops. 

And because you’re particular about your business growth, setting a budget and tracking it will help you ascertain your business next level and identify the cost of getting there.

How To Track, Plan And Prepare A Budget For Your Business

1. Identify your revenue

Your take-off step in planning your budget is to identify the paths that bring money into your business every month. This will be tagged as your income before other expenses are deducted.

Also, you should record the income flow for six months or more to identify the pattern so that you can at least predict the recurring months. This will guide you to understand your best sales seasons and forecast future turnovers.

2. Deduct your fixed costs

After calculating your monthly income, the next is to find the total of your fixed costs. This fixed cost is any operational cost that you pay every month. It could also be daily, weekly, or yearly. 

For instance, your office rent, fueling generator, salary payment or data subscription.

Now deduct your fixed cost from your income.

3. Identify your variable expenses

Aside from your fixed costs, other costs vary from time to time. These variable expenses are not necessary for your business, but they’re good to have for business success.

Examples could be the cost of employee personal development, the experience of entertaining a premium client, replacing old equipment or travel costs for an urgent business trip. Most times, variable costs are operational costs around utilities.

Smart business owners try to lower these variable costs as much as they can during low-profit months so that they don’t over-eat into their profits. However, in buoyant months, they take advantage of it to create a stronger impression.

4. Set aside miscellaneous fund

Miscellaneous costs mostly arise when you least expect. So as much as you can, ensure that you prevent these unexpected costs when budgeting for your business by ensuring that you have extra cash at hand to sort them. 

You can put aside an emergency fund to take care of this anytime it’s needed. This will put you on your toes so when an emergency happens say an equipment breakdown or replace faulty furniture. 

That said, you run your business by this maxim: If your budget for a problem, the emergency never arises. And if the emergency does show up? Well, you’ve budgeted for it. It’s not an emergency then, is it?

5. Create your profit & loss statement

Having been abreast of all the above information, next is to determine your profit and loss statement, or profit and loss.

Just talking about profit and loss can bring up feelings of anxiety. 

But never mind, because you’ve already done all the work. All you need is the principle of addition and subtraction: Sum up your income for the month, add the expenses for the same month, and subtract the cash flow-out from cash flow-in to actualise your net worth for the period.

Should you record a surplus after this calculation, then you’re at the top of your business. However, it’s a deficit if the expenditure outweighs the income. Though, small businesses aren’t profitable every month, let alone every year, your strategy as a business owner speaks for the growth of your business. A starter can have it a bit eventful, anyway.

Since the cash flow is the oxygen of all businesses, you need to run this exercise on a fixed regular basis e.g, weekly, monthly or annually, depending on your growing interest in the business.   

6. Outline your forward-looking business budget

Whether you’re a beginner or you’ve been doing this a while, projecting what will happen to your business in the future is educated guesswork. Supposing you’ve been in business for a while, that’ll certainly help the accuracy of those guesses (as you might, well, guess). A starter with business orientation can as well be in form here. 

With your profit and loss statement, you have been equipped with an historical document that reveals the past of your business. Upcoming is to bring your budget to life. Mind you, this is a forward-thinking and future-focused document.

For this step, your profit and loss document will serve as a reference that guides your understanding of the seasonal ups and downs of your business. Hence, you note which investments in your business are worth repeating, what needs adjustment, and what you should avoid completely in the future.

Also, You might leverage the favourable information and decide to hire more staff and extend your hours during certain times of the year, making your business even more profitable in the months that demand is highest.

Conclusion

Once you’re able to track, plan and excellently prepare your small business budget, chances are you’ll effortlessly grow that business into a conglomerate. 

As a business owner, you should first, understand that you need support to grow your business. Secondly, you need continuous knowledge as it is the best way to equip you for potential success.

Follow these social media accounts to update yourself with essential business knowledge.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

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NICON Insurance Faults Report On Senate Summon

by with No Comment financeNews

NICON Insurance Limited has faulted a report on its invitation to the Senate over failure to remit pension fund to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate

READ MORE: ESP survival fund: More payroll support payments, MSME grants to commence this week

According to a document made available to The Guardian, the insurance firm recalled the report, which claimed that the Senate had summoned the firm over failure to remit N17.4 billion pension fund to the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).

“The management of NICON Insurance said that they have not received any summons from the Senate Committee on Public Accounts and are, therefore, unaware of the existence of such summons as reported by the media.

“It is of great concern to management that NICON has been subjected to the court of public opinion on a matter in which we have discharged our duty as a responsible corporate citizen.

“To set the records straight, NICON transferred assets to PTAD under the leadership of Sharon Ikeazor in place of the legacy pension funds for over 50 agencies and parastatals of the Federal Government in June 2017.

“PTAD has all the title documents of the properties in its possession and has been collecting rent on them in the last four years. NICON is therefore not liable to PTAD for any pension funds,” it stated.

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msme

ESP survival fund: More payroll support payments, MSME grants to commence this week

by with No Comment Businessfinance

In furtherance of the Buhari administration’s support for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic under its Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), payment would be made to the next batch of beneficiaries of the ESP Survival Fund’s Payroll support track and the one-off General MSME Grant of N50,000 as from this week.

READ ALSO: Supporting small businesses is critical for COVID-19 recovery

This is expected to increase the number of beneficiaries under the Payroll Support track, which has so far benefitted a total of 319,755 Nigerians, while 265,425 Nigerians are beneficiaries under the Artisan and Transport Support track.

Of the 265,425 beneficiaries, there are 118,581 beneficiaries under Artisan support track, and 146,844 beneficiaries under the Transport track.

The payroll support track aims to support 500,000 beneficiaries with payment of up to N50,000 per employee for a period of three months. The MSME Survival Fund, a component under the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan, NESP, is designed to support vulnerable Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in meeting their payroll obligations and safeguard jobs in the MSMEs sector.

The scheme is estimated to save not less than 1.3 million jobs across the country and specifically impact on over 35,000 individuals per state. Applications for the MSME Grants and the Guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Scheme opened on February, 9th, 2021 and closed on March 1, 2021.

The General MSME Grant is a one-off grant of N50,000 that will be given to each qualified MSME as direct cash injection into their enterprise.

The total number of beneficiaries in this track is 100,000 spread across the States. In the same vein, under the Artisan Support scheme, a total of 333,000 Artisans and Transport business operators nationwide will get a one-time operations grant of N30,000 per beneficiary to reduce the effects of income loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, 172,129 businesses have so far benefitted under the under the ESP Survival Fund formalization support track, which is aimed at registering 250,000 new businesses for free with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

The formalisation support scheme had commenced on the 26th of October, 2020, with the registration by aggregators – CAC registration agents across the 36 states and the FCT. The processing of applications for the Guaranteed Offtake Stimulus Scheme is still ongoing and the commencement of this track will be announced on a later date.

The Guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Scheme is aimed at protecting and sustaining the incomes of vulnerable Micro and Small Enterprises by guaranteeing the offtake of their products. 

A total of 100,000 Micro and Small Enterprises are to benefit from the scheme.

The Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari on June 24, 2020, as a N2.3 trillion stimulus plan to mitigate the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Plan was developed by the Economic Sustainability Committee chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

SOURCE

Why Separating Business and Personal Finances is Good for Business

Why Separating Business and Personal Finances is Good for Business

by with No Comment Businessfinancesme tipsstartup tips

As a business owner, it is important you don’t take your finances lightly. Most business owners make the mistake of mixing up their business and personal finances thereby unable to differentiate their business and personal expenditures. 

A study by the U.S Bank as highlighted by the Hartford Small Biz Ahead stated that 82% of businesses fail due to cash flow mismanagement.

If you’re the type that combines your business and personal cash flow, your business is fast heading to early bankruptcy. To save your business from this doom, the best approach is to separate your finances.

In this article, I will share the reasons why separating your business and personal finances is good for your business.

But first, let’s dig from the basics.

What Is The Difference Between Business Finance And Personal Finance?

Business finance is the fund you used in the strategic and operational running of your business. It’s the amount you’re raising and managing in the areas of planning, control operations, and your financial structure while personal finance covers managing your money, savings and investment. It also comprises your budgeting, banking, insurance, etc.

That said, it is also important you consider your business as an entity that is capable of surviving on its own. In a way that it has, its own accounts, investment, budgeting, etc.  

Excerpt: Understanding Financial Literacy with Money Africa

Why You Should Separate Your Business and Personal Finances

Separating your business and personal finances is important in many ways, here are 7 of them;

1.  It helps save time and money

It is important you let your business account to sort your business expenditures and your personal account does the same. 

This will help you to better track your business expenses and help you or your accountant to record your cash flow in an organized form. This act is necessary for accessible fund analysis and management. 

When you have your accounts all organized, you’ll save time and money for sorting your finances, and when your business grows to the stage that you hire an accountant, the job will be less stressful for him.

Saving time and money will mean that you are able to invest your energy in other business-productive activities.

2.  It helps achieve financial stability

Having a business comes with its own risk. You can’t be sure about when you’ll attain the break-even point despite investing diligent works. You only keep your hopes high while being consistent with the process.

So when your business downtime hits, separating your business and personal finances will help you spot the tsunami and immediately adjust your expenditures.  This difference will guide you whether to reinforce your business with your personal finances or let the business help itself. 

And when you seek funding or financial support, only a business account can stand in for you, else every investor will believe you’re using the money for something else. 

3.  It makes auditing easy

Every government utilizes business audits to evaluate the viability of a business and its likely economic benefits. They do this because it is important to ascertain that the business complies with the standard of doing business in the state. 

If your business and personal accounts are jumbled together, your business expenses will be difficult to scan through. And that will create a wrong perception of you as a business owner. 

However, when you have your finances as well as supporting documents are intact, your auditing process becomes easier and your tax returns and financial reports are well examined.

4.  It reduces your business tax rate

Having clean and easy-to-understand financial records could help you reduce your tax rate. This is possible because your auditing process will be simpler and the auditor will be able to spot your financial model.

That way, your business won’t mistakenly pay for what your personal maintenance which may include rents, transportations, and other business expenses.

5.  Ease the borrowing process of business credit

Many businesses survive on loans and credits. They access these when they need to execute a project or want to stay afloat during hard times. 

But obtaining business credit isn’t child’s play. Your financials must be solid and well-articulated, if not, the bank will disregard your proposal.

The agency or bank needs to be sure that your business can survive without your money. So having a separate account makes it easier for the agencies to give you loans. They can easily visualize your business sustainability and how you’ve managed money in the past years.

That trust currency will enable you to access the actual capital to grow your business.

6.  It enhances your professional identity

Customers and investors do not want to conduct business with companies that are treated as hobbies. They want to work with you when you take your business seriously. They want to see how professional you are and they want a clear belief that you and your business operate as different entities.

If you don’t have separate accounts for your business and personal expenses, it will tell on your business. The investors will see the business as mainly a play, and they won’t toy their money with it.

Besides establishing your professional identity, it positions your business as a respected entity that clients and investors can work and associate with.

7.  It prevents your business from bankruptcy

Ultimately, separating your business and personal finances prevents your business from bankruptcy. You will enjoy the ease of accessing funds, and business support. 

Aside from that, it also guides the way you dip your hands into the business account. This is true because you’ll clearly identify when you’re crossing the business-personal account line. And save you from likely debt. 

Conclusion 

Now that you understand the importance of separating business and personal accounts, you should test your financial literacy, and have a good way to earn legal protection. 

Even your employees will respect the money flow, as all money transfers will be made according to specific protocols, including salary, dividends, and other distributions, rather than in an arbitrary fashion.

The Enugu SME Agency has created some videos on financial literacy for business owners that you can access here and here.

Subscribe to the Enugu SME Agency YouTube channel to get instant notification when the new videos are updated.

Stock Exchange

How to trade Stocks in Nigeria? A beginners’ guide

by with No Comment Businessfinance

The trend of stocks trade has been steadily picking up throughout the world since the advent of electronic trading in 1970.

READ ALSO: Access Bank: Race for Continental Expansion

In the past decade, there has been increased participation of the millennials in the Stock market through online trading apps like Robinhood and E-Trade which has given boost to trading figures.

Nigeria too has seen growing interest in online trading with both millennials and older stock traders using local trading platforms.

But it has been noticed that many new traders generally tend to ignore the basics and risk factors related to trading while trying to book significant profits in turn they end up losing money. To make better profits, it is important to understand the details of the stock market and guidelines related to stock trading.

Below is our complete guide for the beginners to start stock trading in Nigeria.

What are Stocks or Shares?

A stock or share represents the ownership of the company or corporation. Owning shares of any company means that the shareholder owns a part of the company’s or corporation’s asset and earnings.

All the shares that are held by external investors of a company are called outstanding shares. Suppose if a company has 500,000 outstanding shares, then owning 50,000 shares means owning 10% of the stakes in the company.

Any company or corporation that exists in the world is either public or private. A private company is generally owned by a few individuals who can be founders, management, or private investors. A public company is a company in which common people or general public can own stakes besides the company promotors or founders – by buying a portion of shares offered in an initial public offering or through

Stock exchange.
For example, Aliko Dangote owns shares of Dangote Group, Elon Musk owns shares of Tesla. In simple terms, if you wish to own a part of any company, you will buy its shares.

The value of these shares keeps changing due to the performance of the company and many other factors. The frequent buying and selling of shares with an aim to book profit is called as stock trading. 
 
How Does Stock Trading Work?

The act of buying and selling of shares from stock exchange with expectations to book profit is called stock trading while accumulating the stocks for a long term is called stock investing. Traders who generally buy and sell the stocks on the same day are known as day traders.

A Stock exchange is a secondary market where all major shares of public companies are traded.

Exchange matches the potential buyers and sellers of shares of listed companies on the exchange. This means that if you buy shares of any company, you are buying from other shareholders who want to sell through the stock exchange.

For example – Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc are traded publicly on stock markets and investors can buy & sell them on exchange.

Only Public Companies are allowed to trade publicly on a stock exchange that means outside investors or general public can invest in them through stock market. This is a way for companies to raise capital for business expansion or raise initial funding in case of IPO. Every new company has to register itself through Initial Public Offering (IPO) on an exchange.

Investors normally earn income from company’s profits as dividends or by speculation on share value as day trading or value investing in the stock exchange.

Individuals can buy and sell shares of any listed company at varying prices from the stock market.

Companies are not allowed to take part in stock trading but they can buy back their own shares or issue more stocks.

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cement-bags

Growing real estate investment, input cost increase cement price

by with No Comment Businessfinance

Growing investment in real estate as an alternative asset for Nigerians looking for where to hedge their funds against inflation is a major reason for the rising price of cement, BusinessDay findings have shown.

READ ALSO: MSMEs Contribute Over 50% Of Nigeria’s GDP, 80% Employment ― FG

High input cost, product scarcity or limited supply arising from shocks in the economy and disruptions in production activities is another reason for the current hike in cement price.

Nigeria is experiencing what is clearly a galloping inflation. Its March inflation figure at 18.17 percent is an embarrassment to economic analysts. Apart from eroding the value of the local currency, this has also affected food prices and crimped household/consumer purchasing power significantly.

By its nature, real estate, unlike other investment asset classes, appreciates in value over time, virtually unaffected negatively by inflation. Rather than depreciate and lose value in inflationary periods, real estate, in the worst case scenario, remains static in value.

This explains why the rising price of cement is not deterring or stopping investment in the sector.

“The knowledge of real estate as a means of financial security has attracted more players and investors into it, thereby affecting the demand and supply of cement in the country; real estate is one sector that can flow with inflation per time, hence a lot of Nigerians are currently investing in it,” Osazee Edigin, an estate developer, confirms to BusinessDay in Benin City.

Construction activities have been upbeat in the sector since the beginning of the last quarter. Ayo Ibaru, COO, Northcourt Real Estate, also confirms to BusinessDay that increased investment in real estate contributes to the rising price of cement, citing mid-income residential buildings springing up in Lagos on both Island and Mainland.

He also cites institutional investors that are doing both residential and commercial developments such as Purple Capital, which is doing mixed use developments in Lekki and Maryland in Lagos. All these push up demand for cement and, by extension, the price of the product.

But there are other reasons for the significant increase in price that cement buyers have seen. “Yes, we have seen increased demand arising from increased construction activities in real estate sector, but that is not the real cause of the price hike.

READ MORE

Women Entrepreneurs

FG Urges Women Entrepreneurs To Apply For MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme

by with No Comment Businessfinance

ABUJA – The Federal Government has pledged its commitment to supporting the operations of women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, even as it has advised them to apply for MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme.

READ ALSO: 246,000 Youths to Benefit from FG’s N75bn Youth Fund

Amb. Mariam Yalwaji Katagum, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, made this commitment when a delegation of the Federation of Women Associations in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FEDWIM) led by its National Coordinator, Mrs. Anne Ugbo, paid her a courtesy visit in Abuja.

A statement on Friday by Mrs. Oluwakemi Ogunmakinwa, Assistant Director, Information in the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment quoted the minister to have said that Nigerian women entrepreneurs, through their ingenuity have always contributed their quota to national economy and therefore needed to be encouraged for enhanced contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Katagum reaffirmed that Nigerian women formed a very important constituent of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.Katagum reaffirmed that Nigerian women formed a very important constituent of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

She reiterated that women-owned businesses were allocated 45 per cent and five per cent for those with special needs in the Federal Government’s MSMEs Survival Fund Scheme to cushion the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses.

According to the Minister, “The Federal Government clearly understands the place of women in economic development of our nation and that is why this Ministry is doing everything possible to support them.

Among other initiatives, the Federal Government has also flagged off is the N50billion Export Expansion Facility Programme (EEFP) on non-oil export businesses thereby safeguarding jobs and creating new jobs.

“I use this medium to encourage more women to apply and we also urge associations to mobilise and sensitise their members,” she said.

Katagum commended the association for the achievements recorded so far and advised the delegation of FEDWIN to formally write to the Ministry, indicating areas of collaboration.

Earlier in her address, the National Coordinator, Federation of Women Associations in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FEDWIM) Mrs. Anne Ugbo said the association was in the ministry to brief the Minister about its programmes and to solicit support for its members across the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory.

She commended the Minister of State for her motherly commitment to the well-being of the Nigerian women through her contributions to the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

She stated that “FEDWIM is established to serve as a platform to create synergy among all women economic empowerment focused groups to provide a single mechanism for coordinated engagement with government and other stakeholders.

“This would engender effective supervision and monitoring of participation in the implementation of programmes and feedback for appropriate policy formulation and decision making on matters of economic empowerment and financial inclusion of women.

“This would fast track the development and competitiveness of the MSME sector, especially for women who are faced with challenges of poor access to affordable finance, appropriate technology and other challenges”.

The National Coordinator said the association was currently mobilising 50,000 women across sectors and levels of operations to participate in the ongoing process of accessing the Agribusiness and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) loan.

SOURCE

Youth Benefit fg fund

246,000 Youths to Benefit from FG’s N75bn Youth Fund

by with No Comment financeNews

There are indications that only about 246,000 Nigerian youths may eventually benefit from the Federal Government’s Nigeria Youth Investment Fund, NYIF, at end of the disbursement programe this year.

READ ALSO: AfCFTA Market Offers Nigeria $666.2bn Business Opportunities – Emefiele

The NYIF was part of the COVID-19 stimulus package of the Federal Government last year aimed at getting the economy rescued from the set-backs of the pandemic by engaging the young people in productive ventures.

So far only 41,000 out of over three million applicants has been covered and about N12.5 billion has been disbursed. The government intends to disburse N75 billion under the scheme before end of this year.

READ ALSO: Update on the Enugu Micro-credit Lending program

The beneficiaries received about N300,000 each but some of them were angry that the amount was far bellow their expectations and the purpose for which they needed the fund.

One of the beneficiaries told our correspondent that he was surprised that he got only N300,000 when he actually applied for N3.0 million, which he said was the cost of his poultry business expansion as contained in the business plan he submitted.

He lamented that the development would force him to continue looking for more funding which may delay his expansion while jeopardizing his loan repayment plans.

He also confirmed that a lot of his friends that applied did not succeed while a few that succeeded also got N300,000.

But the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development appears to be disappointed at some of the beneficiaries who condemned the amount they received as the scheme actually pegged maximum amount for individual beneficiaries at N250,000, meaning that over 20 percent enhancement was actually made.

In a statement earlier in the week the Ministry said the disbursement of the Fund is being done in phases.

A statement signed by the Director of Press explained that the ministry had received over three million applications for the initial N12.5billion made available.

It said at the current cap of N300,000 per beneficiary, only about 41,000 beneficiaries could be covered.

According to the ministry, it had limited the loans to the current amount so as to reach as many beneficiaries as possible.

The statement read in part, “The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has been following with interest the reaction of some beneficiaries of the NYIF, particularly those expressing disappointment at the N300,000 cap on disbursement under the first tranche of N12.5billion.

“Firstly, the framework specified N250,000 as the maximum for individual and eligible businesses that are critical can access up toN3m subject to meeting key criteria set in the guideline and conditions.

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Nigerian Exchange Group

Stock Market Gains N88.980, Ends Week Bullish

by with No Comment Businessfinance

The Nigerian Stock market sustained its recovery Friday as the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) closed the week bullish and the All-Share Index and Market Capitalization appreciated170.02 index point and N88.980 billion respectively.

READ ALSO: Charting A New Course for Venture Capitals and Early-Stage Funding

The ASI appreciated by 0.43 percent to close at 39,301.82 basis point, having opened trading for the session at 39,131.80 basis point, while the market capitalisation jumped to N20.568 trillion from N20. 479 trillion, also representing a 0.43 percent growth.

The Equities market was largely impacted by the rise in the value of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc , Stanbic IBTC Bank, Tripple Gee and Company Plc, Academy Press and Regency Assurance Plc.

The day’s transaction saw the stock market turnover increasing by 25.83 percent, as 287. 038 million shares worth N 3,038 billion in 3,578 deals as against 228. 111 million shares valued at N 2. 635 billion in 3,656 deals bought and sold by investors on Thursday.

The market breadth was massively positive with Nine laggard equities as against 32 stocks advancing.

The gainers’ table was dominated in percentage terms by Tripple Gee, surging by 9.23 percent to close at N0. 71 Kobo per share.

Sovereign Trust Insurance and Stanbic IBTC Bank rose by 8.70 percent to close at N0. 25 Kobo and N50 per share respectively.

Also, Academy Press Plc jumped 8.11 percent to close at N0. 40 Kobo per share, while Regency Assurance Plc climbed 8 percent to close at N0. 27 Kobo per share

Conversely, the laggard’s log was led in percentage parameters by Union Dicon Salt Plc, losing 9.59 percent to close at N9. 90 Kobo per share.

Linkage Assurance dipped 4.76 percent to close at N0. 80 kobo per share, while Cornerstone Insurance Plc Plc declined 3.70 percent to close at N0. 52 Kobo per share.

FTN Cocoa Plc fell by 2.50 percent to close at N0. 39 Kobo per share, while Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc completed the top five losers’ table when it shed 0.83 percent to close at N5. 95 Kobo per share.

Access Bank was the most active stock in volume terms, trading 46.788 million shares valued at N351. 758 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank closed trading as the most valuable equity at N1.333 billion.

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