The Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives (Medac) through its agency Tekun Nasional will launch a no-charge financing scheme to help rehabilitate and restart micro businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The scheme will be open for applications on Aug 15 and a total of RM100 million has been allocated under the Economic Recovery Package (Pemulih) for the scheme’s implementation, expected to benefit 11,500 micro-entrepreneurs.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (picture) said based on a study conducted by Medac, an estimated 580,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) will face failure in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Therefore, I hope these entrepreneurs take the opportunity to apply for a financing scheme that will be launched to increase business capital, including microentrepreneurs under the First to Close, Last to Open category whose business is affected due to the closure of operations,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He said the Informal Financing Scheme (SPIN) 2.0 and the Micro Business Recovery Financing Scheme (CBRM) 2.0 that will be launched are improvements from previous products.
“Recognising the urgent needs } of entrepreneurs in raising capital, the maximum limit on financing this product has been increased and no charges are imposed.
“For SPIN 2.0, the maximum funding limit is RM10,000 while CBRM 2.0 is up to RM20,000. I hope the launch of this scheme can help micro-entrepreneurs in the continuity of their business,” he noted.
Wan Junaidi had previously said that Malaysia suffered a total of RM40.7 billion losses last year from the MSMEs sector as a result of a nationwide strict lockdown.
SPIN 1.0 was launched in December 2020 to help informal entrepreneurs whose businesses were affected by the pandemic. To date, 3,369 informal entrepreneurs have received funding worth RM19.8 million.
Meanwhile, through the Prihatin package with a fund of RM200 million, Tekun Nasional launched CBRM 1.0 in April 2020.
The allocation under this scheme has been successfully channelled fully in December 2020 to 26,326 entrepreneurs.
“I am confident that with the implementation of the National Recovery Plan and the financial assistance channelled by the government to the people, the economic sector will gradually recover as usual”, the minister added.
SPIN 2.0 and CBRM 2.0 applications can be made online or at the nearest Tekun branch office.
Source: https://themalaysianreserve.com/2021/08/02/medac-allocates-rm100m-for-zero-charge-financing-scheme/