Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has said that Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the most important business components for economic growth and should be supported for growth.
The VP made this disclosure at the launch of the MSME Clinic in Minna, Niger, recently.
According to Osinbajo, small and medium scale businesses are to be prioritised in the scheme to things, if economic growth is to be engendered.
“The MSME Clinic is a response to the fact that we recognise that MSMEs are the most important business component of our economy. “In any economy, what small businesses contribute is really the superstructure of the economy. And that is why the President decided that we must have this clinic in every state of the federation and so for the past two years, we have been going round flagging MSME clinics, state by state, and one-stop shops,” he said.
Osinbajo, however, noted that having MSMEs clinic in each state has become necessary to facilitate the growth of small businesses. He added that most small businesses found it difficult to travel all the way to Abuja and Lagos just to get regulatory permission.
In attendance was the Executive Director, Micro Enterprises, in the Bank of Industry (BoI), Toyin Adeniji, who revealed that the bank has given out over N400 million in loans to SMEs across Nigeria.
According to Adeniji, the BoI has recorded 7,500 beneficiaries for the Market Moni initiative, recently kicked off by the Federal Government.
Adeniji stated that SMEs across the country, need to be financially empowered to succeed; a drive that has necessitated the Market Moni initiative.
“The objective of the loans is to provide financial inclusion to make sure that every citizen is empowered. Access to finance is a major problem to all businesses at every level and remains critical to the success of any business. “This administration has deemed it fit to make sure that even the people at the bottom of the pyramid are able to access finance without any hassle,” she said. In his address, the Niger State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Bello, said his administration has accessed over N2 billion from the CBN to assist MSMEs in the state.