PENAMPANG, Jan 20: The National Entrepreneurial Group Economic Fund (TEKUN) aims to channel aid to about 33,300 informal and micro-entrepreneurs, involving an allocation of RM600 million, nationwide this year.
Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Datuk Ewon Benedick said the government had allocated RM330 million to TEKUN Nasional under Budget 2024 to help informal and micro-entrepreneurs in their respective businesses.
“This means TEKUN Nasional will use an internal allocation of RM270 million,” he said when opening the Penampang TEKUN Nasional Branch Office here today.
Ewon, who is Penampang Member Parliament said in Sabah, it would involve RM84.5 million for 4,393 informal and micro-entrepreneurs.
He said that until now TEKUN Nasional had collected repayments amounting to RM7.27 billion and the amount was given out as loans to other entrepreneurs.
“This brings the total amount of funding by TEKUN to RM9.1 billion compared to the allocation provided which was only RM4.6 billion,” he said.
Regarding the i-Contract Financing Scheme introduced in 2015, Ewon said TEKUN had channelled RM1.66 billion to 14,787 Bumiputera contractors nationwide.
“In Sabah, a total of 3,262 Bumiputera contractors have received funding amounting to RM383.6 million during the same period,” he said, adding that Sabah recorded the highest number of recipients under the i-Contract Financing Scheme.
He said RM4.6 million had been disbursed to 1,052 Pasar Tamu entrepreneurs under the Tamu Entrepreneur Financing Scheme (SPUT) launched last March.
— BERNAMA