The London Academy Business School has urged the Association of Business Development Professionals in Nigeria (ABDPIN) to improve its service delivery to small business owners.
The Principal Partner of the School,  Mr John Iyobhebhe, said this at the on-going ABDPIN 2017 National Conference in Abuja.
According to Iyobhebhe, some form of professionalism is required to encourage micro businesses in the country and the association is positioned to fill the gap.
He urged members of the association to ensure credibility in their endeavours by increasing their knowledge base for better service to  their clients.
He said: “It is important to make the association knowledgeable and competent base; the association must work hard to develop a body of knowledge among its members.
“This is important in order to add value to small business owners who want to develop, grow and sustain their businesses.
” The association as a regulator, should have standards, ethics, moral codes on how members should behave and failure to abide by these rules should attract sanctions.
” It is important that the professionals abide by a code of conduct established by the association as this will also act as a catalyst for the growth of MSMEs in the country.
“The increase and development of this sector will in the long run contribute greatly to the GDP growth of the nation.
Iyobhebhe noted that the level of knowledge and skills acquired by members of the association would determine the kind of services the professionals would deliver to their clients.
He, however, urged members to deliver standard and quality services to client as this would guarantee the income receivable by the professionals.
He also urged the association to ensure collaboration with stakeholders, international agencies and government at all levels to support the association in rendering better services to its clients.
“The Federal Government has an overriding duty to support the MSME sector by providing funds and an enabling environment for the sector to grow.
“Evidence has shown that government cannot directly run these institutions; therefore, you have to advocate for the private sector to be the driving force of how things are done.
“You must position yourself in a way they will find you credible and reliable to engage you to deliver on your mandate of mediating for the MSMEs,” Iyobhebhe said.
Meanwhile, Mr Umar Muhammed, the representative of MAFITA group, urged members of the association to focus on its target audience, that is the small business owners.
He said,” You must understand properly your target audience and decide the kind of service you have to provide for them.
“You should also recognise that the country is just getting out of recession, therefore you must recognise the role you have to play at this time to fully get the country out of recession.
Muhammed further expressed MAFITA’s desire to collaborate with ABDPIN in ensuring better services to small businesses in the country.
MAFITA is a Non Governmental Organisation funded by DFID and implemented by Adam Smith International, in partnership with City & Guilds and Making Cents.
It focuses on the vulnerable, mainly people at the low level of the pyramid; it targets vulnerable youth and girls who have basically no skills, get them through acquisition of certain levels of skills to make them employable or be self employed.