SMEs to get micro credit from N500bn Social Protection Programme
Over two million small business owners will obtain micro credit from the federal government’s N500 billion Social Protection Programme for 2016, according to Okechukwu Enalamah, minister of industry, trade and investment.
Traders, farmers and artisans will mostly benefit from this scheme, through a fund that will be managed by the Bank of Industry (BoI).
Enalamah said this while addressing journalists last Thursday in Lagos.
According to him, the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the unsung heroes of the Nigerian economy, currently contributing about half of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while possessing the potential to be more productive if given the right incentives.
“We will champion the cause of Nigeria’s MSMEs, as a means of creating jobs and achieving inclusive growth,” the minister said.
Nigeria has 37 million MSMEs, contributing 47 percent to GDP, while creating 60 million jobs. However, only 0.2 percent of commercial banks’ finance flows to this sector, Start-Up Digest gathered. A lot of regulatory pressure is also piled on MSMEs in the country, as many states now see them as cash cows.
Enalamah said he would work through agencies like the Small and, Medium Enterprises
Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), the Bank of Industry (BoI), the Industrial
Training Fund (ITF), and the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), and in collaboration with other ministries and agencies of government, in rolling out programmes and initiatives focused on supporting MSMEs with financing, infrastructure, technical support and training.
The former chief executive of African Capital Alliance pointed out that his ministry would ensure that it is progressively easier to do business in Nigeria, assuring investors and MSMEs that policies would be predictable and consistent, just as government would now act as a partner to business and investment, rather than as a competitor or adverse regulator.
“In the weeks and months ahead we will be unveiling a number of important initiatives aimed at addressing Nigeria’s consistently poor performance on various Global
Competitiveness and Ease of Doing Business Indices,” he disclosed. “These concrete initiatives will focus on dismantling the many obstacles that stand in the way of business and business innovation in Nigeria,” he noted.
He said, in the estimation of his ministry, the singular most important
enabler of business in Nigeria is infrastructure, stressing that work is already going on within the government to create a dedicated fund to tackle the Infrastructure deficit.
“I must add at this point that infrastructure refers, not only to ‘hard’ infrastructure like transport networks and reliable power supply, but also ‘soft’ infrastructure like transparent regulation, policy consistency, the rule of law, and a culture of efficient collaboration and synergy among various government agencies and offices,” he added.
He stressed that there would be no shortcuts or silver bullets to the challenges confronting Nigeria’s real sector, but added that the ministry’s commitment to achieving an appreciable and sustained diversification of Nigeria’s economic base and export revenues, and creating the right environment for
business and investment to thrive, should not be in doubt.
“Some of our efforts as outlined above will require policy and legislative backing. We have already started looking at our existing policies and laws to see what interventions are possible and necessary,” Enalamah stated.
He said it is also very heart-warming that the National Assembly has already started work in this regard, highlighting a number of critical infrastructure and investment-related laws it will be revising in the months ahead.
“We are assured of support for our agenda from the highest levels of government. We will also ensure that all stakeholders are carried along on this journey, and that our work is underlined by a sense of openness and transparency,” he said.
ODINAKA ANUDU