£25,000 grant scheme now opens

Economy Minister Diane Dodds is encouraging businesses that consider themselves eligible to apply for the £25,000 grant online as soon as possible.

The Minister said: “I am pleased to announce that the £25,000 grant scheme for businesses in the retail, hospitality, tourism and leisure sectors is now open for applications. The scheme will run over the next month and will deliver much needed funds to ease the cash flow problems of some of our hardest hit businesses.

“I assure businesses that as soon as applications have been verified, the grant will be paid – we will not be waiting until the end of the application process before starting to process payments.

“I urge anyone who thinks they are eligible for support under this scheme to visit nibusinessinfo and start the process now.”

The Minister added: “The £25,000 grant scheme is the latest support measure put in place to support local businesses following the small business support scheme, which has now issued over 16,300 payments of £10,000 to eligible local businesses and which is also now open to those eligible for industrial de-rating.”

Both grant schemes will close for applications on Wednesday, May 20.

Concluding, the Minister reiterated that she is seeking to deliver support to businesses not currently eligible for the existing grant schemes.

She said: “A budget has been identified for a further scheme and we are examining how to deliver this money to where it is so desperately needed. We will look to address as many of the gaps as we can.”

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