His Excellency, Peter Gregory Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour party has spoken to mark the micro, small and medium sized enterprise day.
This is a critical department of the economy which is so dear to him from the onset.
See the statements below :
Today, we mark the Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Day – during which we must remind ourselves the priceless roles MSMEs play in catalysing economic growth and development in the country.
Studies show that Nigeria is home to about 40 million MSMEs, comprising 90% of all businesses in Nigeria. 70% of these businesses are youth-owned. MSMEs contribute over 50% to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), with 98.8% of them in the micro cadre.
They account for nearly 90% of the jobs in the country. For a country of well over 200 million people, with a land mass of 923,768km², more small businesses need to be born, to fully harness the human and natural resources that abound in the country.
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According to the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, four out of every five SMEs fail before their fifth anniversary due to harsh economic environments, lack of access to capital, and poor business practices, which have stunted the growth and transition of micro-businesses in Nigeria. In addressing the challenges faced by small businesses, the government must address the issues of low formal educational and technical competence of SME owners, access to business funding, lack of power supply, infrastructure deficit, inflation, scarcity of foreign exchange and regulatory bottlenecks that weigh down on small businesses.
Over the years, I have always pointed out that supporting small businesses remains the surest way of pulling people out of poverty. Beyond poverty eradication, MSMEs will create abundant jobs that will productively engage the youths – our productive work force, and reduce crimes, insecurity and drugs addiction.
Having studied how MSMEs played immeasurable roles in transforming great economies like China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and others where there are MSME’S are contributing over 60% of their GDP, and employment respectively., we have to give more support to small businesses in order to achieve our economic growth ambitions as a nation. No nation has enjoyed strong economic growth and development without an active participation of the private sector. In moving Nigeria from consumption to production, therefore, we will support a booming private sector that will contribute effectively to the nation’s growth and development. This we will achieve through aggressive funding of small businesses, and giving out many fiscal and monetary incentives that will encourage our youths to set up businesses around their proven skills, and contribute to national growth and development. -PO
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