• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Expert attributes poor performance of SMEs to poverty

SMEs

Mohammed Sanni, a revenue consultant and forensic auditor, says poverty remains one major reason why small businesses perform poorly in Kwara State.

“It is on record that despite the fact that Kwara State was created in 1967, it is currently ranked one of the 10 poorest state in Nigeria with the GDP of $3.840, as reported by Wikipedia in February, 2019,” he said.

Sanni stated this while presenting a paper, ‘Economic and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), Potentials of Kwara State’, at the 24th Media Parliament organised by the state council of Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ), in Ilorin, recently.

The financial expert, however, posited that lack of support by the state government for small and medium scale businesses is the major factor hindering economic development in Kwara State.

“The current administration didn’t only slow down the activities of SMEs, but vigorously pursued anti-people policies, which aggressively retarded the performance of SMEs and this accounted for the current position of the state,” he said

While expressing dismay over current challenges confronting Kwara despite the enormous resources and economic potential the state has, he said the activities of SME businesses determine the economic growth of any societ, as they are the engine room of the economy.

The guest speaker recommended that SMEs should be strengthened and supported in order to create a vibrant economy, and an enabling environment should be provided for the operators to enable them perform optimally.

The support, according to him, could also be in the form of good policies, guaranteed credit facilities and market opportunities.

He equally suggested strategic partnership with SMEDAN, Bank of Industry and other development banks, adding that such effort would go a long way in creating values that promote economic activities in the state.

Sanni also identified bad governance, poor rural development and decayed infrastructure as other factors responsible for the bad state of economy in the state.

He said Kwara State is blessed with large deposit of mineral resources such as; Limestones, marble, feldspar, clay, kaolin, quartz and granite rocks.
The financial expert, who asserted that the incoming government has inherited a decayed system that would require a lot of effort to ameliorate, recommended that the new government should explore the potential of the state to ensure a sustainable economic development.

“The new government should come up with local content policy so as to ensure that local services and materials are utilised by any contractor being engaged by the state government except where such services or materials are not available locally. This would broaden market for small and medium operators.

“Also, the incoming government should vigorously pursue programmes such as active support for SUBEB operation by accessing the grant of over N5 billion with federal government in order to give more rooms for activities that would create economic opportunities for our entrepreneur,” he added.

 

SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin