Abia State government has announced plans to launch a large-scale apprentice scheme to create jobs for youths and other unemployed adults in the state.
Consequently, the state government is to partner with entrepreneurs in Aba, especially the finished leather and garment clusters that already have the system in place to ensure its success, said Chinenye Nwogu, senior special assistant to Abia State governor on Employment and Youth Empowerment.
He also announced plans of the state government to carry out enumeration exercise in different clusters in the state to get correct data of all SME operators in the state.
Nwogu revealed this in Umuahia, Abia State capital, at a Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) stakeholders meeting organised by the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises Development to sensitise the stakeholders on the proposed Abia Micro-Finance Bank, which would be launched soon in the state.
He stated that the plan of the state government is to set up a micro-finance bank in the state to provide low-interest loans to artisans and other entrepreneurs, who have been starved of funds by commercial banks.
According to Nwogu, SME is the largest platform for job creation and an average Aba artisan has skill but lacks modern tools and funds to expand.
He explained that the state government has acquired licence for the MFB and secured offices in Aba and Umuahia and urged entrepreneurs to buy into the MFB, which, he said, belongs to them.
“Government is full of bureaucracy and knows nothing about business and so the Abia MFB will be run by entrepreneurs, who will also sit in the board of the bank,” he stated.
Nkwachukwu Agomou, permanent secretary, Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises Development, who affirmed the development in an interaction with BusinessDay, said the state’s SME Microfinance Bank would be launched in the next few weeks.
He explained that the SME MFB would enable artisans and other entrepreneurs in the state to acquire funds at a single-interest digit.
“It will also make government accessible to the people. MFB is being established to help the people get funds and re-equip their businesses,” Agomuo said.
He urged those yet to register their businesses to do so to make it formal and accessible for people to know what they do.
“Most informal businesses in this part of our world are wrongly done and that is why it is bringing low proceeds and that is why we are not where we ought to be. SME is where the money is and people should take advantage of it,” he stated.
Lack of finance has been a major challenge faced by garment and finished leather sector operators in Aba, a situation they attributed to the refusal of commercial banks to lend to micro and small industries.
