COVID-19: Pop Central launches SME Ad Grant

 Pop Central, the fastest-growing media platform in Nigeria focused on a young audience demographic has launched the SME Ad Grant.   This initiative will avail small businesses the opportunity of free exposure on live television. The media platform is giving verified Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria millions of Naira worth of free advert grants via its station, Pop Central TV, DStv channel 189.

About the grant

The SME ad grant will act as boosts to enable them to create the needed visibility in Nigeria and across Africa. The chosen SMEs get to promote their products and services as they navigate through the current pandemic. Pop Central is partnering with FAYA, an Adtech company that simplifies and unifies the way to trade media advert inventory, to disburse the grant to the SMEs.

The importance of SMEs

Small and Medium Enterprises are crucial for local and economic development. According to research, in Nigeria, SMEs contribute 48% of national GDP, account for 96% of business and 84% of employment. This significant contribution of SMEs to the Nigeria economy has been affected harshly by the ongoing COVID -19 pandemic. This incited Pop Central to introduce the SME ad grant stimulus to support SMEs in the country on the path to recovery.

Yinka Obebe, Chief Executive Officer, Pop Central said, “The SME Ad Grant is aimed at helping small and medium sized businesses recover from the reverberations of the Covid-19 pandemic. We are giving away 388 million Naira worth of free advert grants to verified SMEs in Nigeria who are obviously the engine that runs the economy.”

“Verified SMEs are those that have been duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria; they are eligible and can apply for the SME Ad Grant via the link on our website,” Obebe added.

How TV Advertising Helps SMEs

TV advertising as a premium complementary marketing platform is effective for SMEs who need to promote and aim to market a product or service. SMEs who will take advantage of the SME Ad Grant by Pop Central will be able to target and capture their audience, reach and build trustworthiness with a wide audience and cushion the difficulty that most SMEs are experiencing this year.