FG vows to create enabling environment for SMEs

Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of industry, trade and investment, said at African Food and Products Exhibition in Lagos weekend that the federal government was out to create an enabling business environment for industries and facilitate the growth of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

At the exhibition organised by the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC), Enelamah said government would create policies to make MSMEs thrive.

The minister said the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council and Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari had been meeting to better the country’s business environment.

“The president and the Council have been having meetings regarding this and efforts are being made to see that it comes to pass. We are starting to see feasible changes and soon SMEs would speed up effectively,” Enelamah said.

He further said that Acting President Yemi Osinbanjo signed an executive order last week to speed up and improve reforms.

This would significantly change some of the ways government business and operations were conducted in the country forthwith, he said.

According to the minister, diversifying the economy was one topic that was overly canvassed, but oil was a vital energy source and should not be sidelined, adding that in the process of developing and diversifying the economy, it should be done in a way that was more inclusive.

“If oil yields over 10 percent, it means then that if other areas of the economy are properly harnessed, they can contribute nine times more than what oil does,” he said.

“The government has drafted out plans on what must be done to really diversify the economy in order to make it a robust one. We plan on being committed to finding an enabling environment for the players in the economy to thrive, which includes both domestic and foreign. We also intend to make dormant infrastructure productive for use of the citizenry,” he stated.

He emphasised the government had set out goals needed to create an enabling environment so as attract foreign investors.

“Nigeria needs to grow from being an importer to a manufacturing nation. We are going to deal on comparative advantage. As such, we are going to concentrate on tomatoes, which we have in a very large quantity. We are going to create world class economic zones across the country. We are going to boost our infrastructure in terms of transportation, communication and other areas of commerce in order to make this country a successful and reliant one,” he said.

Chinyere Okeke