“BUILDING STRONGER FUTURE TOGETHER IS THE WAYFORWARD TO NATIONAL SOCIO-ECONOMY” says SMEDAN BOSS

The Director General Small amd Medium Enterprise, Development Agency Of Nigeria. ( SMEDAN), Mr. Olawole T. Fasanya, Phd, has stated that the celebration of the United Nation’s World MSMEs Day for them in SMEDAN was a day of reflection, adding that It was a day that allow the Agency for self assessment in their contributions to the huge and ever-evolving MSME community in Nigeria. “A day that enables us measure how sustainably competitive and efficient the 39.6 million entrepreneurs have become in Nigeria”.he said.

While delivery his keynote speech, Mr Fasanya said: “the United Nations, in recognizing the significant role that MSMEs play globally to national socio-economic wellbeing, declared the 27th day of June each year as the World MSME Day. There is no doubt that the MSME community have helped in realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) objectives by being responsible for up to 90% of businesses, 60% to 70% of employments and contributing up to half of the global GDP, Specifically in Nigeria, MSMEs contribute over 59 million jobs as at 2021 (over 84% of the total labour force in Nigeria) and more than 48% to the country’s nominal GDP (NBS/SMEDAN 2021 report).

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“with the projections on the need to build a more resilient MSME space that can be leverage on to address the global economic challenge, there could not have been any better theme for the World MSME Day than “Building a Stronger Future Together”. The need for better cohesion among all key players to ensure the sustainable development of the most critical sector of Nigeria’s economy was a major emphasis in engagements with stakeholders. A more coordinated approach towards the provision of supports will not only make the sub-sector more sustainable but also measurable.With the new Government in place, Nigeria is more than ever before presented with an unprecedented opportunity to emerge with a better enabling environment for MSME”.

Mr Fasanya disclosed that SMEDAN has lined up different activities to celebrate the World MSMEs Day and to also address some of the emerging challenges with a view to strengthening their resilience and ability to tap into the ever-growing competitive markets.

He further noted that he was on various media platforms creating awareness on the significant contributions of the MSME sub-sector to Nigeria’s economy and the several initiatives of Government being put together to cushion the impact of the fuel subsidy removal especially on MSMEs.

The SMEDAN Boss in his speech also said efforts were currently on to commission about five (5) Common Facility Centres (CFC) across the country, adding that the pilot of the CFC initiative located in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Nnewi and Katsina would provides a platform for MSMEs in Garment Making, Furniture Making, Autotech Industries and the Packaging sectors to have access to shared facilities at very subsidized rates. “We have equally partnering with several Commercial Banks such as Sterling Bank, First Bank, Jaiz Bank and the Nigerian Incentive Risk-Based Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) on measures to reduce the bottlenecks associated with accessing funding window that is critical to business growth”.

He further said the Agency was also concluding the process of establishing a Micro-Finance Bank to attend to the peculiar funding demands of the rather endangered Nano and Micro entrepreneurs,
noting that all these interventions have increased the capacities of various categories of MSMEs by more than 30% within the first 2 years of benefitting from the program. “We are very aware of the creative minds of Nigeria’s young populace that account for about 68% of our population. As a step to convert the innate talent that most of this segment possess, we started the Talent-Hunt program with special focus on identifying their special skills and converting such talents into enterprise lines. We have over the years been able to nudge creative entrepreneurs in the areas of ICT, Fashion, Movie production and metal fabrication. Each participant gets their capacities built in enterprise management and intellectual property laws while the first 3 winners in each states gets varying degrees of grants”.

Speaking with Journalists at the venue of the event, the Natural President of Association For Public Policy Analysis, and Publisher Power Consumer Watch Magazine, Comrade Prince Okorie, Said, this year 2023 world MSME day celebration was a coincident with the transition from a Democratic Government to another in Nigeria, noting that the newly introduced Customer Protection and Regulations 2023, and the signing into law of the new Electricity acts in Nigeria was a welcome development to the nation economy.

Comrade Okorie said that it was positive as the discussions are geared up towards the future of MSME in Nigeria. he said according to SMEDAN, surveils carried out by the agency in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, revealed that there are 39. 654, 385 MSMEs in Nigeria, employing 59. 647, 954 persons. this he said it implies that Electricity was important for those MSMEs to produce products and render services.

Comr. Okorie further noted that electricity was essential in all facets of life, as it enhances Education, entertainment, health care, communication, transportation, manufacturing, Commerce, agricultural productions, food preservation, information dissemination, etc. “these areas provide an avenue for entrepreneurs to deploy skills, innovations and technologies to solve human problems, and make a suitable living”.

He said the Association of Public Policy Analysis came up with the National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Electricity Consumer Protection Programme which the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) approved and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Association for its implementation in 2020, adding that having commence the implementation of the National MSME Electricity Consumer Protection Programme in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja in 2022, the Association for Public Policy Analysis implementations team observed a serious challenge arising from lack of International and Local support for protection of Electricity Consumer right of Micro , Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria of which has a great adverse effects in facets businesses in the Country.

“BUILDING STRONGER FUTURE TOGETHER IS THE WAYFORWARD TO NATIONAL SOCIO-ECONOMY” says SMEDAN BOSS