RM7.4 million in business registration grants for students up for grabs — SSM

MELAKA: A total of RM7.4 million in grants for the registration of 143,000 businesses for free under the One Student One Business Scheme disbursed by the Companies Commission of Malaysia ( SSM) are still available.

SSM deputy chief executive officer (corporate services) Nor Azimah Abd Aziz said the allocation was part of the RM10 million grants allocated under the scheme, which was launched in January 2017.

She said application for the scheme was open to full-time students from public or private institutions of higher learning, technical schools and vocational colleges aged 18 years who were running their own business.

“So far, 38,000 students have registered their businesses involving RM2.6 million in grants under the scheme, with the remaining RM7.4 million grants for the registration of new businesses are still up for grabs.

“The scheme is aimed at encouraging students to venture into entrepreneurship through companies registered under SSM and students are urged to capitalise on the grants,” she told reporters after launching the 1st Student Entrepreneurship Programme (1st Step) 2019 at the Melaka Technical School (SMTM), here yesterday.

Nor Azimah said students could register their businesses with the grant allocation via the SSM website at https://ezbiz.ssm.com. my.

She said the grants catered to students, especially those from technical schools and vocational colleges, who were equipped with certain skills that would enable them to venture into business and create jobs.

“So far, SSM have registered 1.2 million companies and 7.3 million businesses. We are always committed to increasing this number through the involvement of technical school and vocational college students,” he said.

Nor Azimah said the 1st Step was an SSM initiative to expose students to the world of entrepreneurship and business, as well as inculcate business acumen by learning from business icons.

The programme themed ‘ Business as a Career’ hosted by SMTM was the second in the 1st Step series which has drawn 1,200 students from technical schools and vocational colleges in the state.

At the event, SSM presented RM20,000 corporate zakat (tithe) to 100 asnaf (deserving) students, RM2,000 to the SMTM surau and RM10,000 to 50 underprivileged non- Muslim students under its corporate social responsibility programme. — Bernama