Nigeria’s Survival Fund, all you need to know

The Survival Fund is a scheme created by the federal government of Nigeria to provide support to over half a million medium and small-scale enterprises MSMEs in meeting their payroll objectives.

The scheme became important in light of the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic – thus, providing support to vulnerable MSMEs in meeting payroll obligations of between N30,000 andN50,000 per employee per month to safeguard the jobs of up to 10 employees in a 3 month period.

The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment runs the N75 billion Fund which also provides a no-refund grant of N50,000 for small businesses most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The scheme is part of the N2.3 trillion stimulus package under the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) made up of N60 billion MSMEs Survival Fund and N15 billion Off-take Schemes.

A statement on the government’s website reads

The COVID-19 crisis and its attendant restriction on movement of people and border closures is causing all components of aggregate demand to fall. The fall in household consumption in Nigeria stems from restrictions on movement, thus causing consumers to spend primarily on essential goods and services; low expectations of future income and the erosion of wealth and expected wealth.

Movement restrictions have not only reduced the consumption of nonessential commodities in general but have affected the income-generating capacity of the population, thus reducing their own consumption expenditure.

Nigeria has a large informal sector which contributes about 65 percent of its economic output and a large proportion of the population is clustered around the poverty line thus making them highly vulnerable to falling into poverty due to shocks. The MSME Revolving Guaranteed Off-take Scheme is one of the Federal Government’s economic support measures to assist micro and small businesses affected by the pandemic.

The Payroll Support Scheme is aimed at MSMEs adversely affected by the pandemic. The scheme will provide Payroll Support to a maximum of 10 employees per qualifying MSME.

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The scheme is expected to save at least 1.3 million jobs across the country while targeting an average of 35,000 individuals in each of the 36 states of the federation.

How is it going so far?

On November 18, 2020, the federal government announced that so far 101,567 verified employees drawn from 16,250 businesses have received their first monthly payment from the Survival Fund’s Payroll Support Scheme, which is designed to support vulnerable MSMEs by paying the salaries of their staff for a period of three months.

“Verification is still ongoing as the payroll support scheme targets supporting 500,000 beneficiaries with payment of up to N50,000 per employee during the duration of three months, starting from October.”

The Senior Special Assistant to Nigeria’s Vice-President on media and publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement titled, ‘ESP (Economic Support Program) in progress: FG commences payment of payroll support to beneficiaries’.

The statement added, “The commencement of payment for beneficiaries of the Survival Fund payroll support follows that of the ongoing N30,000 one-time grant payment to artisans nationwide.

“In the first stream of payments which started at the end of October, beneficiaries are being drawn from the FCT, Lagos, Ondo, Kaduna, Borno, Kano, Bauchi, Anambra, Abia, Plateau and Delta States. They form the first batch of applications for the scheme submitted between October 1 and October 10.”

Eligibility requirements for Survival Fund;

A. Employees’ company Must be registered in Nigeria under the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, and SMEDAN Unique Identity Number (SUIN)
B. Must have Bank Verification Number (BVN) by company CEO
C. Must have a staff strength of no less than 3 persons
D. Must be owned by a Nigerian

how to register for Survival Fund

Visit the official registration portal at www.survivalfund.gov.ng and click on ‘Sign Up’. Select your Registration Type, which is the MSME Payroll Support.

STEP 1 – Register your personal details to start the payroll support application. Instructions at the top of the form will guide you on the required fields that need to be filled to complete the initial registration. Enter your personal information (full name, email address, mobile number). Then, choose a password, enter your date of birth and residential address details.
If you have special needs, ensure you tick the special needs box. Accept terms and conditions to complete your registration.

STEP 2 – Activate your account – You will receive an activation code on the mobile number and email address you registered with. You will need this code to activate your account. Please ensure you have access to the phone number or email address you will register with in order to complete your initial registration.

STEP 3 – After you have successfully activated your account, you will need to login and register your Organisation. To complete this stage, you will need your CAC Number, SMEDAN Number, Tax ID (optional), and the organization’s bank account details.

STEP 4: You will receive an email address on the list of requirements needed to complete the application. These include the beneficiary employees’ details (not more than 10 employees), proof of previous salary payments to the beneficiary, and all other supporting documents.

Required Documents

All applicants are expected to make ready scanned copies of the following documents, they are expected to be available for upload online from Thursday, 1st October 2020.
• Company Registration Details (Reg. No. & TIN)
• Annual Turnover for the last 12 months
• Employee Account Numbers and BVNs
• Proof of last three (3) salaries paid to your employees.