Saving African SMEs towards Vision 2020
A team of professionals from home and abroad recently converged on Nigeria to strategise on how to grow and restructure the Nigerian economy. “The fundamental thrust of the project is economic development, and providing value to stakeholders,” says Derek Omoleh, leader of SME Secretariat, an agency for economic development under which the project is run.
Speaking further, Omoleh says that the project was designed to create and support macro-economic initiatives to government, by creating effective sustainability tools or frameworks to the micro SMEs, medium SMEs, SMEs, public limited companies, multinationals, state owned enterprises (SOEs), ministries-departments and agencies (MDAs).
The partners in the project are Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Federal Ministry of Finance and Office of the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Nigeria in Diaspora Organisation.
Omoleh says the corporate objective is value creation for investors and stakeholders, and the second objective of the SME project is to help the government implement its SME Development Plan 2014-2020 and beyond, in cooperation with other development partners, saying the organisation also supported the Pan-Africa Investor forum held in February 2014.
Speaking further, he says the campaign of the project is to save African SMEs towards the actualisation of Vision 2020 of the country and encourage those with ideas to start their businesses. “The country’s Economic Recovery Strategy can largely be driven by the SME sub- sector and could bring the country back to its steady-state growth path of around 6 percent a year,” he says, adding that GDP per capita has expanded from over the years and that the economy is largely driven by service industries, which account for about 79 percent of GDP.
Reeling out past partnerships and projects of the SME secretariat, he says: “In the year 2012, we worked out a global trade and investment partnership with Nigeria in Diaspora NIDO for the implementation of the Diaspora Investment Fund and a medium of channelling Global
Diaspora Investment with a potential in excess of $10 billion. We have been involved in organising Project Management Training for the Development of SMEs in Nigeria. Our organisation’s capital involvement has been to revive the creative and enterprise sector with a view to create widespread employment, youth empowerment and sustainable future prosperity for all Nigerians.”
On the special industrial intervention project, Omoleh says: “In 2013, the project team wrote an industrial economic plan to Mr. President on Industrial Intervention and Diaspora Partnership. This
was designed as a special advisory role on industrial intervention and economic development to the Presidency. Under the mandate of the Presidency we had series of correspondences and meetings with the Ministry of Trade and Investment and minister of finance and co-ordinating minister of the economy. The project will soon commence implementation by the project Task Team. The year 2013, was a very busy year for Cutting Edge Group and SME Secretariat because the team was busy working very hard to ensure the approval and implementation of the project in January 2014.”