Survival Fund: What MSMEs Need to Know

Everything You Need To Know About FG's Survival Fund Scheme

The Survival Fund for Micro, Small and Medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) was initiated by the Federal Government to cushion the harsh economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business sector. The pandemic-necessitated lockdown led to a near-collapse of the economy, major job losses and furloughs, revenue losses as well as disruption of supply chains.

The Survival Fund is a N75 Billion economic relief package created to support MSMEs in order to ease their operations post-lockdown. It is part of the larger N2.3 trillion set aside to manage the economic decline in the country.

What Economic Packages Would the Scheme Provide?

• Pay roll support – 500,000 beneficiaries of the scheme would be eligible for employee support of N30,000 – N50,000 per individual over a period of 3 months.
• Formalisation support – Provision of free CAC registration for up to 250,000 new businesses.
• Endowment of N50,000 to 100,000 MSMEs that qualify.
• Aid provision to 333,000 service providers in the transport sector (bus/taxi drivers, ride hailing services Uber, Bolt and so on) and mechanics. Artisans - plumbers and electricians are also included in this category.

Who Are Those Eligible For the Survival Fund Scheme?

As stated above, there are multiple categories of people that Survival Fund seeks to provide economic for. The minimum requirement across all boards is to be Nigerian-owned and belong to any of these categories – Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s).

If you are in the category seeking for payroll support, the business (MSMEs) must be Nigerian owned. The company must also be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), must have a registered BVN for its company account and have staff strength of no less than three (3) persons.

To benefit from the artisan/transport support – you must be registered with the corresponding union and/or be licensed while for those seeking grants, you must be in an industry most impacted by the pandemic – hospitality, education, service sectors and so on.

Note: The Federal Government made a commitment to ensure that at least 45% of the benefitting businesses are owned by woman and 5% by people living with disabilities.

Application Date

The application portal for the Survival Fund was opened on Monday, September 21, 2020 and the registration is structured by industry.

From 10:00 PM on September, 21, 2020, MSMEs in the educational sector (note, only private schools) are to begin application, while registration for potential beneficiaries in the hospitality industry would be able to register from the September 25, 2020.

Additionally, every other person seeking to benefit from it would have the portal opened to them for registration from 12:00 AM on Monday, September 28, 2020. The timetable below:

How to Apply:

Step 1:

Potential beneficiaries are advised to log on to survivalfundapplication.com and click on “Sign Up” to begin.

Step 2:

Select your category. Presently, only the payroll category is open for registration; so it would be used for demonstration in this article.

Step 3:

You are to provide your personal details. In order to complete the Payroll Support Registration, your first name, last name, date of birth, permanent residential address, Email address, mobile number and password must be inputted.

It is at this point that you are expected to indicate that you are of special needs (that is, if you are). After this, accept the stipulated terms and conditions.

Step 4:

Activate your account by entering the 6-digit activation code sent to your mobile number and email.       

Step 5:

At this stage of the registration for Pay Roll Support, you are required to register your company. The Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) number, VAT number, SMEDAN Number, as well as Tax Identification and the company’s bank account details will be needed to scale through.

After all these processes have been completed all potential beneficiaries (irrespective of the category you applied for) will be required to upload the scanned copies of their supporting documents from Thursday, 1st October 2020. These are:

• Company Registration Details (for all potential beneficiaries).

The following does not apply to artisans or new businesses seeking free CAC registration:

• Annual Turnover for the last 12 months.
• Employee Account Numbers and BVNs.
• Proof of last three (3) salaries paid to your employees.

This article will be updated to reflect any change/adjustment in the Survival Fund Scheme. Best of luck in your application process!

Staff Writer

This article was written and edited by a staff writer.