 We thank the organizing team and our partners for their hard work and creativity in putting up the first virtual MSME Award in history. We're all delighted that the MSMEs, many of whom have spent the past year doing outstanding work, did not miss the chance to be recognized and celebrated at the 2020 edition of the annual MSME Awards. We don't take for granted the positive impact of these awards on the MSME sector in Nigeria. Since its inauguration in 2018, hundreds of MSMEs carefully selected from thousands of annual applications have benefited from these awards in various ways, cash prizes, cars, and of course the much needed local and international media attention. Permit me to take us back to 2018 when the then little known Jerry Marlowe, the CEO of Ben Yagro, took home the most prestigious award of that year. There he had been discovered a year earlier at the Plateau State Edition of the National MSME Club. Today, Ben Yagro is one of the most recognizable innovators and entrepreneurs in Nigeria, and has since gone on to win several other awards since the recognition that he got at the MSME Awards. He must also mention had to rise an FSE, F-Z-E, who CEO is Alagia Minhubani, a solar technology company who won the award for best male participant in 2019 after being discovered at the Kano State MSME Critic. The company has since gained greater visibility and is now responsible for the installation of solar panels across the Kano metropolis. We also have Super Nigera Limiter, who CEO is Ifeulua Olatai, and she works with small holder farmers in Nigeria. The company won the 2019 edition of the MSME of the year and has gone on to receive international recognition. These are just three examples of the many MSMEs who are demonstrating the catalyzing impact of the MSME Clinic Nationwide, as well as the annual awards. So we can confidently say that the National MSME Clinic platform is a potential pipeline for these awards, which in turn can generate significant exposure for locally and internationally for any shortly-stepped business. As you may be aware, all the finalists typically get as part of the prize package two weeks of media attention to showcase or market their programs. I'm glad to note that this year has not been an exception despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, businesses are facing the most challenging times any possibly in this and the impact is particularly severe on MSMEs. The central plan of our response as a government to the economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic has been the economic sustainability plan recently launched by President Muhammad Mubarak. In that plan, which essentially envisages a 2.3 trillion stimulus package, we've made extensive provisions for financial support to MSMEs, ranging from a guaranteed off-take scheme to a survival fund that includes a payroll support program for qualifying businesses. The guaranteed off-take scheme seeks to provide support for MSMEs, manufacturing local programs, by guaranteeing the purchase from them of qualifying products such as face masks, hand sanitizers, PPEs for essential medical workers, etc. These products will then be distributed to Nigerians and to Nigerian institutions and entities that will require them. The survival fund will help provide payroll support to MSMEs with a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 50 staff. The businesses that qualify for this will make available to its payroll, will make available their payroll to the government for verification. Companies that meet the requirement will then be eligible to have the salaries of their verified staff paid directly from the fund for a period of three months. The payment will be credited directly to the staff verified on the payroll. The target beneficiaries of this scheme will include private schools, hotels, road transport workers, creative industries, and others. But the verification process will be very rigorous and, of course, painstaking. In addition, we have a 200 billion fund which is made available to MSMEs in the priority sectors such as healthcare, agro-processing, the creative industry, local oil and gas, aviation, etc. This will be granted through a scheme to be jointly run by the DOI and NEXIN plan, especially for export expansion. The central bank is also committed to creating a 100 billion Naira target credit facility for MSMEs. Moreover, the recent Finance Act of 2020 has already made provisions for graduated company income tax rates with zero rates for small companies. Those companies will have an annual gross turnover of 25 million Naira or less and a rate reduction for medium-sized companies, about a 20 percent reduction for medium-sized companies. This extends incentives to small and medium-scale businesses as well. We've also paid some attention to the ease of doing business and we're setting initiatives, especially our efforts to consolidate some of the previous efforts that have been made. Following numerous complaints about regulatory registration fees, NAFDAQ recently launched a palliative scheme for MSMEs. The main objective of the scheme has been to reduce product registration fees by as much as 80 percent for a six-month period and also to provide an e-registration option in keeping with our desire to promote COVID-19 compliant behavior. The Corporate Affairs Commission is also rolling out a plan to register 100,000 new business names at a discounted fee. This will afford small business owners whose businesses are not currently registered to do so efficiently and inexpensive. Just last month, June 2020, I had the honor of commissioning a 200,000 capacity YAMM storage facility for smallholder farms in Zakib YAMM market, in various ways. Zakib YAMM is perhaps the largest YAMM market in Nigeria and certainly in the region, attracting buyers and sellers from across the country and beyond. In addition to the new storage facility, the market saw extensive renovation work on its internal buildings, as well as the provision of portable water and other facilities. All around the country, similar MSME focused interventions are being implemented. Kaduna State, for example, is working on a tomato paste production line. Lagos is putting together a fashion hub. The FCT is equally set to launch a cabin feed cluster, while Anamro State is almost ready to commission its leatherworks cluster. All of these are scheduled for 2020. In 2021, Edo, Ekiti, Katsuna, Ogumbauji, and Enugu will commission shared facilities that will bring MSMEs together by cluster and provide shared equipment and resources and business support to the entire cluster. Let me once again, as I close, congratulate all the shortly-stepped and winning MSMEs across the country. And to those who did not make the list this year, don't give up. Keep innovating, keep working hard. Your recognition and reward is inevitable. Every person who has taken it upon themselves to start a business in Nigeria, no matter how small, is a champion. And we, as a government, owe it to you and all of you who are attending this virtual event and the tens of millions of other nations to create an enabling environment for you to thrive. This is President O'Hara's commitment to all of the millions of MSMEs in Nigeria that will continue to stand by you, to support you, and to create opportunities for you to grow and prosper. Thank you all very much for listening, and thank you also very much for attending this virtual event. God bless you.