Sabah entrepreneurs told to seize micro grants, loans
Published on: Saturday, October 21, 2023
By: Jozie John
Dompok delivering his speech during the Micro Madani Programme Sabah series tour.
Kota Kinabalu: Micro-entrepreneurs are encouraged to seize opportunities from the various initiatives and incentives provided by the government under the Micro Madani Programme.
Chairman of SME Corp. Malaysia Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok said the Micro Madani Programme financial aid to micro-entrepreneurs in the form of grants and loans through five main initiatives.
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The initiatives are Micro Business Grant (GPM); Micro Business Financing or Micro Biz Financing (MBF); Mikro@TUBE Youth Business Grant (Bumiputera Youth Entrepreneur Buddies); Bumiputera Enterprise Enhancement Programme (BEEP) Plus Sabah and Sarawak; and MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) Status Registration Voucher.
“SME Corp. Malaysia expects over 20,000 micro enterprises to receive benefits under the Madani Micro Strengthening Programme or Madani Micro Programme.
“I would like to call on micro-entrepreneurs to seize opportunities from the various initiatives and incentives offered under this programme. We also welcome Sabah micro-enterprises to visit the Sabah State office at the EPF building, Kota Kinabalu,” he said during the Sabah series of Micro Madani Programme tour, here, on Friday.
He also highlighted that for BEEP programme, SME Corp. Malaysia provides financial assistance in the form of grants of up to RM250,000 which can be applied to any projects that have been implemented from January 1, 2023.
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“SME Corp. Malaysia will continue to provide support in ensuring that the capabilities of MSMEs, especially micro enterprises, can be increased to a higher level, while also helping to boost the contribution of MSMEs in Malaysia,” he said.
He added that the government is indeed consistent and committed to giving special attention to local MSMEs as a catalyst of national economic growth.
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Among the announcements made by the Prime Minister during the launch of the Madani Economy Framework last July was an additional allocation of RM100 million to SME Corp. Malaysia.
“As announced by the Prime Minister, these additional funds are specifically allocated for micro enterprises, with annual income not exceeding RM300,000 and have less than five people employees.
“As the agency that leads the development of MSMEs in Malaysia, SME Corp. Malaysia will ensure that the aid will be channelled properly as well as to ensure recipients are from among micro enterprises,” he said.
In his speech, Bernard also pointed out that until September 2023, SME Corp. Malaysia had certified 27,054 registrations of applicants with MSMEs status and of this number, 2,628 MSMEs (9.7 per cent) are from Borneo, namely Sabah (1,055) and Sarawak (1,573).
In 2022, MSMEs represent 97.4 per cent of the total number of business organisations in Malaysia and almost 80 percent (78.7 percent) or 923,667 of the total number of MSMEs are made up of micro enterprises, he said.
“The number of micro enterprises in Borneo, in particular, is also quite significant at 133,598, which is 65,340 in Sabah and 68,258 in Sarawak.
“Therefore, there is a need for the government to give special focus to support the development of this group in achieving a more inclusive, sustainable and balanced growth,” he said.
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