Abuja -The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) says it is collaborating with the private sector and other government agencies to develop the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector in Nigeria.
Alhaji Bature Masari, the Director-General of the agency, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that the collaboration was necessary, given the fact that government alone could not provide the funding and expertise needed for the development of the MSMEs sector.
“Our desire and determination to foster collaboration and partnership with the private sector is because of our appreciation of the need for government to collaborate with the private sector.
“Because the government alone cannot be able to provide what Nigerians would want the government to provide by way of employment generation and poverty reduction.
“And ensuring economic inclusion all over the country and that is why we are out to identify willing collaborators in the private sector.
“And commercial banks are key in that area, because they have the finance to provide to MSMEs so that they can be able to properly set up and develop Nigeria.
“And fill in the gap in providing employment opportunities and creating the needed economic empowerment for Nigerians.
“We have been having the understanding and corporation of very many commercial banks and micro finance outfits.
“ We be able to signed MOUs with associations of micro finance outfit in Nigeria.
“We are also working very hard to sign MOUs with other commercial banks, like Union bank, First banks, FCMB, Fidelity, Diamond bank.
“We are also working very hard with telecommunications companies for them to come in and come on board and provide what we need in the area of creating market opportunities for Nigerians.’’
He explained that MSMEs operators were benefiting from the fruits of the various collaborations with the private organisations, adding that SMEDAN would not relent in its effort at forging more partnership.
According to him, SMEDAN is also into collaboration with the Bank of Industry (BOI) in the area of financing enterprises.
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Masari said with N3 billion, SMEDAN would be able to generate one million employment for Nigerians.
He also stated that SMEDAN was also collaborating with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) with a view to having an accurate data and record for planning and intervention in the sector.
According to him, SMEDAN has conducted a survey on the number of MSMEs operating in the country.
“We conducted that survey last year, and we were able to come up with a reviewed figure of MSMES that operate in Nigeria at the end of December 2013.
“The last survey was done in 2010, we also review the data of MSMEs operating at the end of Dec. 2013.
“At the end of 2010, we had 17.2 million MSMEs operating in Nigeria,” Masari said.
He said the increase of MSMEs in the country as at the end of the December 2013, rose by more than 100 per cent from 17.2 million in 2010 to 37 million in 2013.
This, he said, represented an increase of more than 20 million of MSMEs in the country.
He explained that the 37 million MSMEs were currently providing employment opportunities for millions of Nigerians.
On agriculture, he said that SMEDAN had in its survey identified products that could be mass produced with competitive and comparative advantage in the 774 local government areas.
Masari said that it was important for Nigerians to take advantage of the millions of opportunities within the agro allied processing potentials by setting enterprises that would help significantly in job creation and poverty reduction.
He stated that the agency was also in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture with a view to properly repositioning the millions of cooperative societies that had been formed in the agriculture sector.
According to him, the aim is for SMEDAN to be able to provide business support services to the cooperative societies. (NAN)