ABUJA – Alhaji Bature Masari, Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), says the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) is the current focal programme of the agency.
Masari stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, all other activities of the agency are presumed under the programme.
NAN recalled that the programme, which was inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan on Feb. 15, 2014, was aimed at generating an estimated five million direct and indirect jobs between 2013 and 2015.
It is focusing on Skills Acquisition, Entrepreneurship Training/Business Development Service (BDS) and Access to Finance.
“The agency engineered the formation of over 60,000 cooperatives which was a very big achievement.’’
“In the process, we were able to create over 380,000 new jobs for Nigerians. And the number of new jobs created is increasing on daily basis.
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“The business ideas which we have engineered in various strata of Nigeria are receiving financial support to go ahead with the establishment of enterprises.
“More Nigerians are being gainfully employed, more funds are being pumped into the economy, and the level of poverty is definitely going down,’’ he said.
Masari said that in another year or two, the impact of the NEDEP programme would manifest in every nook and cranny of the country.
He said the agency achieved, among others in 2014, the establishment of the National Council of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
“This is the first time that such a council is being set up by the highest body of government, which is the Federal Government.
“The National Council of MSMEs came about as a result of government’s realisation of the need to ensure that all MSME activities in the country are properly coordinated.
“We need to have a coordinating body in ensuring the success of the programme.
“Interestingly, the national council is being headed by the Vice President of Nigeria, Namadi Sambo, which underscores the importance the government attaches to the issue of MSMEs in the country.”
Masari said the council had been very busy and alert to its responsibility of ensuring that the problem of lack of access to finance and MSMEs development was properly sorted out.
“This is to ensure that Nigerians who hitherto had no access to funds, can now access funds to establish enterprises of their choice.
“I want to assure you that Nigerians will witness a lot of transformation in accessing funds for the establishment of MSMEs in every local government area in the country,’’ he said.
He said the agency was behind the setting up of state councils of MSMEs, adding that it was a structure that had been developed.
“Both MSME national and state councils will work together to ensure proper coordination of all MSME activities in the country for the overall interest of our economic growth.
“It is interesting to note that the council is looking into ways of softening the guidelines for accessing the N220 billion CBN MSMEs fund to make it more accessible to ordinary Nigerians,’’ he said.(NAN)
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