The Rural Finance Institution Building Programme (RUFIN) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The MoU is aimed at facilitating the training of RUFIN groups in vocational and entrepreneurial development.

RUFIN, a $27.2 million programme between the Federal Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is designed to alleviate poverty with focus on women, youths and physically challenged people in the country.

The seven-year programme is being implemented in 36 local government areas and 12 states; namely Oyo, Lagos, Anambra, Imo, Nasarawa, Benue, Zamfara, Katsina, Adamawa, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom and Edo.

The Director-General of RUFIN, Malam Muhammad Umar, said the training had become essential for the development of all the small-scale enterprises (SMEs), which had been neglected for a long time.

He said the neglect had made it difficult for the agricultural sector to compete favourably with other sectors and contribute meaningfully to exports and the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

Umar stressed the need for the country’s leadership to earmark more funds for the development of SMEs to ensure the development of the economy.

He argued that if the small businesses were developed, they would cover the largest bracket of population in the country who would be engaged in one trade or the other and become self-reliant.

The director-general observed that the lack of inter-dependence between big and small-scale enterprises had resulted in most of the big businesses winding up.

He said SMEDAN had been working toward improving the entrepreneurial development of the country to enable the SMEs to contribute effectively to export.

Umar noted that currently, the SMEs did not contribute more than three per cent to export compared to the more than 50 per cent recorded in India.

“Until we have this, we can make bold to say we have an import-dependent country,” he said.

The director-general commended RUFIN for training its groups in vocational and entrepreneurial development, saying this would go a long way in making the programme viable.

Mr. Musibau Azeez, the National Programme Coordinator of RUFIN, said the programme would strengthen rural micro-finance institutions to enable them to provide financial services to the rural poor.

He said the development would also enhance their income and agricultural productivity and boost rural micro-enterprises.

Azeez said it was in its quest for proper implementation and in accordance with its mandate that made RUFIN to look for specific areas of cooperation with SMEDAN.

As part of its mandate, he said RUFIN had so far collated information on 4,250 informal savings groups and linked them with micro-finance banks for the disbursement of loans to them for onward distribution to their members.

He added that RUFIN had also facilitated the formation of apex organisations for both Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs) and Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) in the country to promote the sustainability of the programme.

According to him, a curriculum has also been developed with the Central Bank of Nigeria for the capacity building of the MFBs.

Azeez expressed the commitment of RUFIN to cooperate with any organisation that would make it achieve its mandate.