Entrepreneur Wants More Govt’s Support For SMEs

A Port Harcourt-based entrepreneur, Mr Arnold Ifori, has urged the federal and state governments to assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country service.
Speaking to The Tide in Port Harcourt on Friday, the entrepreneur, said that SME entrepreneurs in the country are finding it difficult to function in the face of the present economic recession.
Ifori explained that accessing loans from the commercial banks at the current interest of 13% as approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) monetary policy has compounded the challenges of their business survival, urging the apex bank to review the approved interest rate of the commercial banks.
Ifori, who is also the Chief Executive stressed that government needs to promote the survival of the small scale business through the grant of certain incentives to entrepreneurs in the country.
He added that small scale entrepreneurs are today the major employers of labour considering the fact that many major companies have retrenched a lot of workers.
He emphasised that government should formulate policies that will protect the small scale businesses as recently done by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to grant waiver to 37 industries in the country for their survival.
He said that small scale businesses will soon organise seminar for their members with eminent scholars and businessmen in attendance to inculcate positive values of business survival in them.