To ensure that products of micro and small businesses easily access more markets, the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has launched the SMEDAN Select 2022 initiative.
The SMEDAN Select 2022 initiative has created a global market access platform for products of Nigerian origin produced by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
“It is in the bid to further support MSMEs the agency developed the SMEDAN Select programme,” said Olawale Fasanya, director-general, SMEDAN at the launch of the initiative in Lagos.
“The initiative is geared towards creating a new SMEDAN brand from standard products from among the best of Made-in-Nigeria products in the food, fashion, beauty and agro/agro-allied sectors,” Fasanya who was represented by Mazi Ewas, director of EDandP at SMEDAN said.
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He said the agency had sought and selected across the country about 300 products it will display and market on its website and social media handles.
The director-general stated that the hardcopy catalogues of the businesses will be distributed to embassies, other MDAs and in department stores across major cities in Nigeria to improve the patronage of the various products.
According to him, the initiative focuses on products of MSMEs who are existing beneficiaries of the agency’s One Local Government, One Product (OLOP) programmes.
“This ambitious effort of the agency is based on the successful implementation of the pilot phase of the OLOP programme in Katsina, Kaduna, FCT, Osun and Anambra States,” he said.
“The intervention activities under OLOP, among others, include access to workspace, equipment support, access to working capital, and capacity building.”
He added that the objectives of the initiative are to increase access to local, regional and global markets for MSMEs, support market expansion for them, create brand names for made-in-Nigeria products, and drive awareness of standard made-in-Nigeria products.
Speaking also, Aisha Abubakar, Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, said poor market access is a major problem facing small businesses in the country.
Abubakar who was represented by Adewale Bakare, director of the industrial corporation at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment stated that one key impediment to market access is barriers to entry, defined as obstacles that make it difficult to enter a given market, adding that it is worse if the intended market is regulated.
She acknowledged SMEDAN for supporting MSMEs to address the issue, noting that the ministry will collaborate with the agency to provide any needed support to ensure the success of the initiative.
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