The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), has identified poor infrastructure as a major challenge to the growth of the sector.
Mr Olawale Fasanya, the Director-General of SMEDAN, identified the challenge impeding the growth of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Abuja.
“Nigerians are very industrious and are looked upon by other African entrepreneurs as giants but infrastructural challenge is what is inhibiting optimal performance of SMEs in Nigeria.
“The only way we can go about it is to encourage businesses through provision of common facilities for organic clusters.
“We are advocating for businesses to come together.
“If there is a solar common facility within a cluster you have virtually solved the problem of power and serve a complementary purpose of reducing production cost which reflects on price of commodity,’’ he said.
Fasanya added that market could as well be jointly identified and outsourced to MSMEs in a cluster.
He said the only way to enhance MSMEs competitiveness wass through the provision of common facilities which SMEDAN could not do alone.
The D-G, however, noted that MSMEs that could not be clustered due to the type of business could be given tax holidays through the provision of credit guarantee scheme.
“If we have a credit guarantee scheme, banks would be willing to release funds to SMEs. This would be a great support for people just going into business as they find it more difficult to access loans.
“We are pleading with the government that while we wait to get infrastructure right, the provision of common facilities for SMEs should be prioritised.
“We rely on a budget so there’s a limit to what we can do but we believe that as time goes on we would be able to do more,” Fasanya said.
Fasanya also appealed for stronger synergy among government agencies to reposition the MSMEs sector.
He said that the call was necessary in view of the need to promote the growth of MSMEs in the country.
“There are various government agencies that have one thing or the other to do with SMEs but they are doing it alone.
“If it means we have to stoop to conquer then I am ready.
“As governmental organsations dealing with SMEs, we need to create a collaborative environment so that when one stops the other complements,” he said.
Fasanya stressed that working in synergy would help to place MSMEs in Nigeria on international maps.
