The National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASMEs) has called on the Federal Government to transfer Industrial Development Centres (IDCs) to state governments to ensure their optimal performance and effectiveness.
The Chairman, Lagos State Chapter of NASME, Mr Solomon Aderoju, made the appeal in an interview with The Tide’s source yesterday in Lagos.
According to Aderoju, state governments will be in a better position to manage the centres since the centres are domiciled in such states.
The Tide’s source reports that there are 23 IDCs in the country and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is in charge of the centres.
The centres were established to provide industrial extension services, boost entrepreneurship skills, appraise loan applications and to help purchase and install machinery for small entrepreneurs.
The centres also conduct research into industrial products involving designs.
Aderoju noted that many of the IDCs were in a state of neglect and disrepair, thus negating their role in stimulating growth of the MSMEs sector and driving the nation’s industrialisation agenda.
“If state governments are not willing to handle it, they can give them to SME associations to oversee them.
“SME associations will handle them better because the associations know the significance of the centres to their operations.
“If we have functional IDCs, cost of production of most goods in the market will reduce, quality and standards of goods will improve and there will be easy transfer of knowledge because we are working together in a location,” he said.
Aderoju said the centres would create more jobs, improve production of goods and boost the contribution of the sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Mrs Olatundun Taiwo, Managing Director, Goodware Stitches Ltd., said equipment in the centres were obsolete.