THE Director General of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, Bature Masari, has said that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises MSMEs contributes 46.54 percent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.
Masari made this disclosure during the post-humuos award to Late Maria Sokenu, former Managing Director of defunct Peoples Bank, who died alongside 116 others on board ill-fated Bellview Airline that crashed in Lisa, Ifo, Ogun State in 2005, by the Association of Professional Women Bankers (APWB) for her contribution to the association and the economy.
Sokenu was special adviser to the Ogun State governor on employment generation and pioneer president of the APWB from 1983-1991.
The SMEDAN DG while delivering a lecture on the theme of the association’s 30th anniversary: Strategic Positioning of Entrepreneurs for Economic Development, said the importance of entrepreneurship across the world cannot be over emphasised as research has shown that MSMEs are critical to the growth and economic development of nations, contributing not less than 50 percent of GDP on the average, with the resultant effect of income generation, wealth creation and poverty alleviation.
“In Nigeria, according to the 2010 National Survey on MSMEs by SMEDAN & NBS, we have over 17.2 million MSMEs, employing 32.4 million Nigerians and nominally contributing 46.54 percent of the nation’s GDP at the period under review.”
He said in order to strategically position MSMEs for economic development in Nigeria, one of the strategies SMEDDAN has adopted that needs to be sustained is strengthening entrepreneurs along the value chain of the typical business cycle. He said from start-ups, the body looks at the business conception/idea generation, project identification, feasibility study, business plan, sourcing for finance, programme execution and implementation, evaluation and control, sales/marketing.
[Vanguard]
