Chairman of the National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI), Gertrude Akihimien, has solicited more funding for the over 23 million Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Akihimien, who made the appeal in a chat with Daily Sun in Lagos, said the funding gap is a big challenge, adding that if well funded, the SMEs will expand and be employers of labour.
“For our business to expand, that is why we are asking that fund be made available to SMEs so that we can produce more local products. “We don’t have enough money to grow or expand our businesses. We produce small portions daily. Some of us produce in small quantities, sell them off at the market and get back again.
“But with adequate funding, we can grow and be beneficial to government because of the potential SMEs have to create jobs and to fall to the formal sector of the economy where business owners can pay taxes.”
She said a research conducted by Small Medium Enterprises Development Association of Nigeria (SMEDAN), a small business organisation that covers larger groups like artisans, entrepreneurs, traders, has shown there are over 23 million SMEs in Nigeria.
Akihimien said if these 23 million SMEs are funded and employ two additional staff, 46 million youths, will be taken out of the unemployment market in one day.
“If the government discovers and focuses on these 23 million SMEs, then fund them and employ two persons in each of the SMEs, overnight, we would have solved a major problem.”
She also advocated improvement of facilities, like power and road network. On the border closure, the NASSI boss said it has affected SMEs in a positive way, as there has been higher demand of their products like various spices, teas, bedsheets, food items and so on.
“Since the closure, we have had to get rice at a reasonable price. Our members got into the farms at different states like Kebbi, Lagos Kaduna, Kano, Ekiti and some other farms during the Christmas season. We sold close to 500 bags of made in Nigeria rice last December in this office. There has been higher demand for our products.
“We sold so many of our local products as against the usual foreign items for hampers.
“We know it’s a short term policy, we are encouraging our members in the interim to boost their productions so that we can produce more and cover the gap that has been created as a result of the non-import of other goods which are off the market space,” she said.