As part of the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) of the federal government, President Muhammadu Buhari has given approval for the free registration of business names for 250,000 small and medium-sized enterprises.

The disclosure was made on Wednesday, October 28, by the federal government in a series of tweets.

This means the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has been given the nod to commence the registration of the MSMEs across the states marked as beneficiaries in the ongoing economic plan.

Meanwhile, 7,906 free registrations will be done in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 9,084 in Lagos and 8,406 in Kano state. 6,606 businesses will benefit from the free business names in each of the remaining 34 states.

Support for SMEs: Buhari approves free registration of small business businessesEarlier, the federal government flagged off the economic plan with a statement from the office of the vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, confirming the payment of N30,000 one-time grant to 330,000 artisans across the country.

About 250,000 MSMEs across the nation will benefit from the free registration. Credit: MBuhari (Twitter)

The statement signed by Laolu Akande, spokesman to the vice president, revealed that the payments are being made to sets of verified beneficiaries of the Artisan Support Scheme, a track under the MSMEs Survival Fund.

Akande further said the early beneficiaries are being drawn from the FCT, Lagos, Ondo, Kaduna, Borno, Kano, Bauchi, Anambra, Abia, Rivers, Plateau and Delta states.

In a related development, a foremost political scholar and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Dr Uche Igwe has described state governors who stored palliatives meant for distribution to hungry citizens as pretenders.

In a statement sent to journalists on Monday, October 26, Igwe described the act of the governors as sheer wickedness, adding that it is inexcusable
.