Uche Henry
The Federal government and Procter and Gamble (P&G) Nigeria, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a Public-Private Partnership initiative to launch the SME Development Academy in Nigeria.
A statement from Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) quoting Allafrica, stressed that the agreement was signed between the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar, on behalf of the Federal government while P&G Director, Government Relations, Africa, Temitope Iluyemi, signed on behalf of the company.
The statement hinted that the strategic partnership was expected to leverage the ministry’s SME Academy programme, which aims at delivering structured skills training, advisory and mentoring activities and services for selected Nigerian- owned SMEs within the academy scheme in order to produce better outcomes for communities, households and the country at large.
The minister said: “We have signed an MoU with Procter and Gamble who has shown keen interest in giving back to society especially the Nigeria society. They have been in Nigeria for over 20 years and deemed it necessary to support SMEs because they believe these are the people who are also their potential customers.
“From the government side, we have over 38 million SMEs and more growing everyday as we churn out graduates every quarter looking for jobs that we are unable to provide. The best thing to do is to develop SMEs by giving them enabling environment and to expand our private sector.
“This partnership we hope will open up the space for SMEs to contribute to the development of this country and for them to also become employers of labour. SMEs have proved to be indispensable to our economy, hence the need to help them scale up and achieve more. This partnership with P&G could not have come at a better time,” she maintained.
She added that the ministry was pleased that the PPP would complement the programme of the government to train SME Academy participants on key financial management principles and expose them to financial literacy, improve their access to finance and promote business ethics.
On her part, the P&G director said the objective of the MoU was to give back to the country by enhancing the skills of SMEs to be more competitive as well as able to operate on the global technological stage, being employers of labour, thereby contributing to the nation’s development.
She said: “This partnership demonstrates P&G’s commitment to be a force for economic growth and transformation. We are committed to empowering SMEs and helping them gain requisite skills for their businesses to thrive. Our ultimate aim is to see small businesses grow and contribute to the overall growth of our nation’s economy.”
“Dearth of organisational capabilities is a major factor that limits development in SMEs; we believe this is an opportunity to offer unique value towards the most pressing issues encountered by business owners. Since SMEs are the bedrock of any economy, if we don’t develop them, then we are doing a disservice to our people.”
Iluyemi added that the passion comes from the fact P&G started with two SMEs in the US and today has grown into a conglomerate.
“We see the same vision for SMEs in Nigeria and we realise that we need to equip them with the right skills, knowledge and to upscale their skills to enable them be more competitive enough not only in Nigeria but to operate on a continental and global scale,” she added.