Business
Commissioner Harps On SMEs’ Insurance
The Enugu State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr Jude Akubuilo, has urged Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria to insure their businesses with a view to protecting them from risks.
Akubuilo gave the advice in Enugu on Tuesday at a workshop on “Risk Management for Small and Medium Enterprises’’.
He noted that many businesses collapsed due to the lack of insurance policies and succession plans. “Cases abound of many businesses collapsing because the owners passed away or retired as a result of old age or ill health and no plans were put in place for continuation.
“SMEs should have in-built efficiency through effective risk management. They should also learn how to diversify to avoid the risk of a product line,’’ he said.
The commissioner said that government was committed to helping SMEs to develop and overcome risks by creating favourable environments for businesses to thrive.
In a paper entitled, ‘SMEs and Risk Management in Nigeria: Challenges and Opportunities’, the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Development Research, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof Chukwuemeka Okoye, stressed the importance of information in risk management.
“The SMEs operator should think of data and information like a miser thinks of gold. He should cherish what he has and strive to acquire more,’’ he said.
Okoye listed ways to manage risks to include set strategies and objectives, risk identification, assessment, treatment, control as well as risk communication and monitoring.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of UnityKapital Assurance, Mr Kins Ekebuike, said that one of the best approaches to risk management was insurance because it was safe, affordable and reliable.
Ekebuike said that the insurance sector had been sanitised by the National Insurance Commission to become more effective through regular payment of claims.
Earlier, the President of Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dr Theo Okonkwo, said the chamber organised the seminar to sensitise the SMEs to risk management.
Okonkwo advised participants to take advantage of the workshop to ensure survival, growth, expansion, and sustainability of their businesses through risk management.
The workshop was attended by representatives of National Association of Small Scale Industries, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, among other business and professional organisations.
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