Nigeria needs to show sincere commitment to SMEs – Gowon

Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s former head of state, has reiterated the need for the country to embrace holistically the small and medium scale (SME) philosophy in order to broaden the scope of economic diversification agenda of government, and close the widening gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’

The Nigerian government, recognising the huge role that the country’s over 17 million SMEs could make in providing jobs and reducing growing poverty, had in the past, initiated quite a number of programmes for the ailing sector, but all of those efforts were yet to make measurable impacts.

Gowon, in his keynote address at the 22nd annual Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) Development Forum held Wednesday in Abuja, pointed out that the Nigeria’s developing economy must now unleash the creative potentials of its citizens through the stimulation and sustenance of SMEs to grow the informal sector of the economy.

“While giant industries and companies are desirable and needed in the modernisation process, it is obvious that SMEs are the engines that are capable of stimulating the growth of the national economy. The experience of Japan, China, South Korea, and the rest of the giant economy in Asia, has revealed that SMEs have the potential of growing our economy and addressing the unemployment crisis,” Gowon said.

On his part, Godwin Ehigiamusoe, founder of LAPO, said the overarching goal of the organisation was to alleviate the poor to break out of the grip of poverty through the provision of finance and social empowerment services.

“LAPO as a system of institutions provides finance and social empowerment services to over 2 million persons in Nigeria and Sierra Leone and have employed over 6,000 in both countries,” said Ehigiamusoe.

He also reiterated that meaningful development would not be possible until full economic citizenship was extended to all citizens, saying “this can be achieved through commitment to development of micro, small and medium enterprises.

Speaking on the theme of the forum: Women Entrepreneurship Development: Issues, Opportunities and Approaches, Christiana Okojie, chairperson, LAPO board of directors, said women empowerment was chosen to focus on how to help alleviate women away from poverty.

According to her, women have a lot to contribute to the growth of the economy, and called for innovative programmes and ideas that would benefit the womenfolk.