It has been reported that up to 43,206 Malaysian entrepreneurs in various business sectors have benefitted from Tekun Nasional’s financing, which comes in at a value of RM451.36 million since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March of this year.
Another agency under the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative (MEDAC), SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp), has also participated in providing financing and development assistance for bumiputera entrepreneurs, including the Bumiputera Youth Entrepreneurship (TUBE) under the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana) initiatives, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
“The aid given is in the form of training with a start-up business grant of up to RM15,000 and business monitoring for a period of 12 months. For this year until September, a total of 765 participants were involved in this programme,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat this week.
This was in response to a query with regards to the amount of assistance disbursed for hawkers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic period.
“The ministry is aware of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on micro businesses and the informal sector, particularly hawkers and small traders. In this respect, the ministry has provided various assistance for hawkers and small traders through the implementation agencies under MEDAC such as Tekun Nasional, SME Corp, SME Bank dan Bank Rakyat,” he said.
He also added that Tekun Nasional has also received a total of RM300 million from the government through the Additional Prihatin SME Economic Stimulus Package (Prihatin SME Plus) and Penjana to be distributed as an easy financing to entrepreneurs affected due to the pandemic through the Covid Business Recovery – Micro and Tekun Business Recovery Scheme.
Securing stable financing is among the chief concerns of SMEs and entrepreneurs even before the pandemic hit. Covid-19 only served to exasperate the issue due to greater uncertainty and poor economic performance. Government assistance and financing is crucial for SMEs throughout the world in order to help ensure smaller businesses and enterprising entrepreneurs have a chance.
