BUKIT MERTAJAM - The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry announced an additional allocation of RM200 million to fund informal and micro entrepreneurs under Tekun Nasional.
Its Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick said the additional sum is meant to assist more such entrepreneurs and will bring this year’s total allocation to RM800 million.
"As of July, Tekun Nasional has channeled RM511.7 million to 28,506 entrepreneurs nationwide. Seeing this trend, I requested a review and found that the allocation for this year was RM600 million.
"So we agreed to increase the funds by RM200 million, bringing it to RM800 million. The additional funds come from our collection of repayments from borrowers.
"Hopefully, the additional funds can assist more informal and micro entrepreneurs in their businesses and we target more than 36,000 borrowers to benefit through loans between RM10,000 and RM100,000," he said, here today.
Ewon was speaking to reporters after inaugurating the Entrepreneurs' Meeting at Dewan Wisma Al-Ansar Masjid Al Muhajirin here, which was also attended by Tekun Nasional Chairman Abdulah Sani Abdul Hamid and more than 1,000 Penang entrepreneurs.
Ewon said that throughout its 25-year operations, Tekun Nasional has implemented numerous agendas and programmes to benefit informal and micro entrepreneurs throughout the country.
He said Tekun Nasional also diversified its financial products to meet the needs of entrepreneurs and provide them with options.
"Since its creation in 1998, Tekun Nasional has financed 563,442 entrepreneurs amounting to RM8.57 billion nationwide, while in Penang alone 23,938 entrepreneurs have benefited from RM313 million in funding,” he said.
He said Tekun Nasional will remain committed to helping informal and micro entrepreneurs by providing financing as well as entrepreneur development. – BERNAMA