SMEDAN, Others Harp On MSMEs’ Potential For Competitiveness

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft fir Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) have harped on the need to harness Nigeria’s Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) potential for competitiveness.
They made the call at the 2022 National Conference on MSMEs organised by SMEDAN, recently,  in Lagos.
The Director-General, SMEDAN,  Mr Olawale Fasanya, in his welcome remarks, said the conference was designed to drive MSMEs across the country through robust public/private dialogues and collaborations.
Fasanya said over two million MSMEs closed shop as an aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and unfavourable business environment, among others from 2017 to 2021.
“The last National MSME Survey jointly conducted by SMEDAN and the National Bureau of Statistics put the total number of MSMEs in Nigeria at over 39 million.
“The sub-sector is very critical at the global, national and sub-national levels, especially for socio-economic reasons”, he said.
Fasanya said this, without doubt, had significantly set the entire economy backwards.
“Despite the challenges, the 39 million MSMEs account for 46.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 87.9 per cent of total employment in Nigeria”, he said, adding that the agency is also interested in connecting Nigerian MSMEs to the huge regional markets.
The Cluster Coordinator, Mr Markus Wauschkuhn, Sustainable Economic Development Cluster/Head of Programmes, Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment in Nigeria Programme (Giz-SEDIN), said that the support was part of achieving its goals of increased income and employment.
“The objective of the GIZ-SEDIN programme is to improve the employment and income situation of the MSMEs.
“To achieve the programme goal of increased income and employment, SEDIN is working to improve the business enabling environment and policy/regulatory framework for MSMEs development and employment promotion in selected states.
“Furthermore, the programme aims at facilitating local economic development and strengthening selected value chains, fostering economic literacy and entrepreneurship competencies and MSME development.
“The target groups of SEDIN are the owners and employees of MSMEs as well as members of other economically active low-income households.
“The programme is working at the federal, state, and local level and is currently working in nine focal states, namely Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Niger, Edo and Abia,” he said.
Wauschkuhn further said the objectives of the 2022 National Conference on MSMEs are to create awareness of the National Policy on MSMEs and the Implementation Framework.
He said they would foster state government active leadership in public private MSME development interventions, and engender the development of specific private sector led MSME development interventions in critical areas of the economy.
Also speaking, a former Ogun State Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Industry, Mrs Kikelomo Longe, said the conference was an avenue to brainstorm on creative ideas to solve the challenges around MSMEs growth.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Mohammadu Buhari on MSMEs, Mr Tola Johnson, on his part, said public and private partnerships were the key ingredients toward growing the economy.