Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), on Tuesday, said the agency was partnering regulatory agencies to implement the open-air Micro, Small and Medium business clinic to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
Director-general of the agency, Dikko Umaru Radda, made the disclosure at a capacity building programme for Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) with the theme, “Unlocking Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) growth to drive global competitiveness.”
Dikko, represented by Friday Okpara, director, Policy, Partnership and Coordination, SMEDAN, said the partnership was geared towards ensuring MSMEs meet the regulatory requirements and standards.
He listed the regulatory agencies partnering SMEDAN to include Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The agency is partnering CAC to implement the incentive on the cost of registration of business name, which now stands at N5,000 only.
Dikko, who said similar capacity building programmes for BMOs were held in Imo and Kano states in 2017, noted that Edo State was chosen for this year programme due to its strategic position as the gateway to the South-South and South-East of the country.
He said the choice of the state was also occasioned by the state governor, Godwin Obaseki’s disposition and resolute to frugally apply the state’s resources to critical sectors such as infrastructure and education that had put the state on the path of prosperity and sustainable development.
“Yours Excellency, your economic development plan of opening up investment opportunities with priority given to initiatives that priorities the state’s competitive advantage in agriculture and human capital development is commendable
“Your dedication has triggered a renewed drive to create cities with modern facilities, industrial hubs and business clusters that will strengthen the MSMEs towards global competitiveness.
“The vision being concretized under your administration is to reposition the state as the nucleus of micro, small and medium enterprises in Nigeria,” he said.
The SMEDAN boss opined that Nigeria must work to ensure standardisation of its product in order to benefit more in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement and to meet global competitiveness.
He however lamented that in spite of the nation’s dominance in the ECOWAS region in size and population, it real GDP growth for 2018 was only 1.9 percent and 2 percent in 2019, attributing the development to the operational inefficiency and the zero value addition to raw materials by the MSMEs in the country.
In his goodwill message, Edo governor, Godwin Obaseki, stressed the need to diversify the economy by putting appropriate policy in place and collaboration with the private sector.
Obaseki, represented by the permanent secretary, Ministry for Wealth, Cooperative and Employment, Joe Edionwe, said the state had put measures in place to jump-start its economy and charged the participants to make the best out the programme and add value to their products.
Also speaking, director-general, SON, represented by Akogu Ojo, charged MSMEs to ensure that their products met the standard requirement for global acceptance.
He therefore called for more robust collaboration between SON and SMEDAN in area of capacity building for MSMEs operators.
