In Bayelsa State, issues surrounding the development and growth of micro and small enterprises (MSMEs) took on added significance with the marking of the MSME Week, organised by the Bayelsa State Microfinance and Enterprises Development Agency (BYMEDA).
Ebiekure Jasper Eradiri, who is director-general of BYMEDA, was formerly a senior special assistant to Governor Henry Seriake Dickson on Small and Medium Enterprises Development and presently a member of the governing body of the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises (WASME).
He said the significance of the MSME Week is to create awareness about the sector, which he described as sensitive and important as well as bring to the knowledge of MSME operators,fentrepreneur state government policy on the sector.
Eradiri further told BusinessDay that the week is also aimed at unveiling an ideas bank for those who are willing to become MSME operators but lack business ideas just as the agency is also willing to support the business ideas of interested members of the public in order to help them grow their businesses.
He explained that intending and existing MSME operators can also tap into the support schemes that the agency provides such as counselling sessions, business clinics and other linkages and network sessions which will enable them to grow very fast.
But he emphasised that there is hope for start ups who have no seed capital as through the agency, they will be able to access seed capital for their establish their businesses while those have existing businesses but need to expand can also access MSME funds.
MSMEs operators can access funds for start up and expansion from the Izon-Ibe Microfinance Bank, which is owned by the state government and has branches in all the eight local government areas of the state for easy access by operators in the hinterland of the mostly riverine state.
This has given the Izon-Ibe Microfinance Bank what Eradiri described as “proper financial penetration, financial inclusiveness” by banking the unbanked, drawing the financial sector to the hinterland and deepening access to finance all of which he says are “work in progress”.
He said that since the advent of Dickson’s administration, a data bank was created which is being updated regularly and over 1,500 individuals and cooperations have benefited from the loans scheme and is working closely with associations such as NASCE, NASME and the Yenagoa Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (YECCIMA).
And, to give added significance to the week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) South-South Entrepreneurial Development Centre is holding a technical advisory committee meeting in Bayelsa State and Eradiri believes that the meeting will help to create further linkages and networks.
He also sees an opportunity for MSMEs operators to tap into the resources of the CBN technical advisory committee and to him, it is also a unique opportunity for the state to press for the realisation of the outreach centre that is to be established in the state which is yet to see the light of day.
Eradiri disclosed that the true vision for the growth and development of MSMEs in the state is that of Governor Dickson who established the Bayelsa State Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency in 2013 and went ahead to make it an act of the state House of Assembly in 2014.
The job of the agency and his, in particular, is to follow through with the vision of the governor and implement the mandate of the agency by doing what ought to be done in order to grow and develop MSMEs to create employment opportunities, increase the earning potential of operators and improve the internally generated revenue profile of the state.
It is the passion of Governor Dickson that led to the establishment of the agency, which represents a major policy shift in the state and is part of a grand design by the Restoration Government to diversify revenue sources apart from crude oil and gas.
On the partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Eradiri said the state government keyed into various windows available for accessing finance for SME sub-sector and as the focal parastatal of the state government on the development of MSMEs, it has accessed N2.0 billion from the CBN and will soon access another N2.0 billion from the Bank of Industry (BoI).
According to him, as many indigenous MSMEs that have accessed funds from the N2.0 billion from the CBN, not many are talking about it and he put it down to an attitudinal problem while stressing that no partisan lines have been drawn in the business policy of the state government and also in accessing the funds.
Eradiri said people walk in freely whom he described as “walk in customers” and access the funds, some get to the agency on the Internet and all of them benefit from the business support provided by the agency without any discrimination on the basis of political association or religion.
He hailed Governor Dickson saying since the creation of the state, it is only the present administration that has been able to ensure that those who access such loans repaid them as all such loans in the past turned out to be grants as they were never repaid.
The director-general stated that the monitoring and evaluation unit and collection team of the agency monitor the banks and those who access the loans, and they access and appraise the entire scheme.
And he pointed out that they work with both individual MSMEs as well as organisations like NASCE, NASME and YECCIMA who recommend their members and should such a recommendation fail to repay the loan, the entire association is flagged so it has helped to put the associations on their toes.
Eradiri said there are indications that MSMEs have leapfrogged in the past one-year with the investment of over N4.0 billion in the local economy, which has resulted in employment generation, increase in internally generated revenue and growth of MSMEs in the state.
He therefore urged all Bayelans to take MSMEs as their second business as they will benefit from the ideas bank the agency has created to support their businesses while calling on existing ones to be part of the supports the agency has created and most importantly to repay their loans so that others can benefit.
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