Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) has advised President Bola Tinubu to monitor the disbursement of the N200 billion presidential intervention fund for micro, small and medium scale enterprises and manufacturers.

Mr Oyintiloye, while speaking with journalists on Sunday in Osogbo, urged the president to set up a monitoring team to ensure that the intervention fund achieved its purpose.

The minister of industry, trade and investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, had announced the launch of the N200 billion presidential untervention fund for micro, small and medium-scale enterprises and manufacturers.

According to Mr Uzoka-Anite, N75 billion will be disbursed to MSMEs while another N75 billion will be distributed to the manufacturing industry under the Presidential Intervention Fund.

Mr Oyintiloye noted that the fund must be protected from being syphoned into private pockets.

He, however, said that necessary strategies must be put in place to ensure that different intervention programmes by the president have positive impacts on the lives of Nigerians.

Mr Oyintiloye commended the president for the launch of the intervention fund, noting that it would boost economic growth and industrial development at all levels.

The APC chieftain, who noted that MSMEs promote a grassroots-level economy and create multiplier effects on the overall economy, said that the presidential intervention fund for the sector was the right decision.

He said the intervention fund would afford the MSMEs, being the backbone of the economy, the opportunity to create more jobs which would unlock the full potential of the nation’s economy.

“MSMEs contribute over 45 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) with 98.8 per cent of them in the micro cadre; they account for nearly 90 per cent of the jobs in the country.

“Therefore, as MSMEs grow, they create more jobs and contribute to GDP by producing goods and services for domestic consumption and export, which will lead to prosperity for more, and less insecurity across the country.

“By creating jobs, MSMEs help to reduce unemployment rates, promote innovation, stimulate economic growth and diversification, and that is the more reason we have to give it to the president for this initiative.

“It will in no small way boost the economy through the creation of open new market because MSMEs are vital to the economic growth of any nation,” he said.

Mr Oyintiloye, a former lawmaker, said that the intervention fund would also boost the manufacturing industries in the country, adding that no modern economy could develop without a strong industrial base.

He said with viable manufacturing industries in the country, there would be high growth, productivity and competitiveness.

According to him, this will increase exports, enhance infrastructure, and skill development, and expand tax base and tax returns from both manufacturers and their workers which will in turn increase revenue generation.

Mr Oyintiloye, a former member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), urged Nigerians to continue to support the president for the delivery of more dividends of democracy.

(NAN)