Set up task force on MSMEs clinics, stakeholders urge FG
Owners of micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country want the Federal Government to set up a task force on MSME clinics to ensure that eventual recommendations are properly implemented.
According to them, there have been MSME clinics set up by previous governments, which recorded no visible achievements, stressing the need for the current government not to repeat past mistakes.
“A task force should be established that will constitute members of various business groups and the office of the vice president to ensure implementation is carried out,” Abdul Rasheed Yerima, deputy president, northern region, Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), told BusinessDay in a telephone interview.
“Whatever challenges which the clinic identifies should be resolved and implemented. It should not be like previous programmes that was just talk without action,” Yerima stated.
Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice-president, recently visited Aba, Abia State’s industrial hub, and stated that a MSME clinic would be established in the area. Osinbajo promised that this would run in 21 states across the six geopolitical zones.
MSME clinics are designed to address the challenges operators of small businesses encounter in the Nigeria’s business environment.
Stakeholders say past governments established a lot of programmes to address challenges of MSMEs in the country, regretting that implementation has always been the problem.
Nigeria has 37 million MSMEs, but the majority of them are poorly performing. Many of them have failed to play expected roles of job and wealth creation as well as economic growth, owing to the difficulties they encounter in the business environment.
The Nigerian business environment is becoming increasingly tougher for MSMEs with challenges such as poor access to finance, infrastructure gaps, multiple taxation, policy issues and bureaucratic registration processes.
Despite opportunities of doing business in Nigeria, the country still has one of the worst records in Doing Business criteria, ranking 169 out of 189 countries, according to the 2017 recent World Bank ease of doing business ranking.
Femi Egbesola, president, Association of Small Business Owners of Nigeria (ASBON) said, “Clinics play tremendous roles in the development of small businesses, especially in addressing their challenges holistically. But implementation of recommendation by government agencies is always the problem.”
“The government have established various programmes, yet the issues MSMEs face still remain. If we must achieve results, it should not just be a government thing; various MSME groups should be involved,” Egbesola said.
Friday Opara, director, strategic partnership, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), said in a telephone interview that the clinics would ensure holistic solutions to the challenges of MSMEs and make them have a better operating business environment.
Josephine Okojie