The federal government has urged
Nigerians to take advantage of the economic challenges facing the
country to embrace small and medium scales enterprises (SMES) as part of
measures to diversify the nation’s economic.
The Director and Head, Policy, Advocacy
and Coordination, Small and Medium Enterprises Development of Nigeria
(SMEDAN), Ewans Monday gave the charge in Abuja while speaking at a one
day seminar on promotion of small and medium scale enterprises
organised by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Alumni
Association of Nigeria (JAAN).
He stated that, “the time has come for
Nigerians to take action and decisions on how to earn income on their
own without having to wait for government noting that there many small
and medium scale business opportunities in the country that can be
tapped into by the ordinary Nigerian.”
Monday said areas such as poultry
production, livestock, bee keeping and processing, soya been processing,
rice production among other areas as business potentials that anyone
with little capital and entrepreneurial skills can venture into.
The first vice president of JAAN, Mr.
Emmanuel Okonko Nden, said the federal government must lay the
foundation for the proper take off of SMEs in the country by providing
infrastructure, particularly in the area of power which has shut out
many small scale businesses.
According to him, “The thing that we
ought to do and we are not doing is laying the structure, the government
must tackle the energy problem, for instance, we could go solar, we
could go wind. Diversifying the economy is a good route we are taking
and if we have this structure on ground we will get there.”
He admitted that government and other
stakeholders have been doing much of talking without taking action, but
however expressed optimism that the time has come to convert those
talks into action.
Nden stressed: “What I think is lacking
in us is this oil blessing from the nature, in the early 80s we had a
situation, as soon after that the oil filled up again. The moment oil
went to sleep, we joined in the sleep and start wishing this is what we
should and the moment the oil picked up again, we forget.”
Earlier, the Chief Country
Representative of JICA, Nakamura Hirotaka said JICA has been promoting
small and medium scale enterprises in Nigeria since 2007 during which he
said the association introduced one village one product promotion.
The one village one product promotion
focuses on community capacity building and rural development in
developing countries and also emphasizes the role of local government in
stimulating local industry, the question of how to reassess and
effectively use local resources.
He stated categorically that Nigeria
must take cue from other African countries that are growing stronger by
borrowing ideas from advanced and developed countries citing Kenya and
Tanzania as examples of countries that have improved in SMEs.
by Adedayo Aikinwale in Abuja
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