The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Amb. Mariam Katagumw, has said the entire focus of the national policy on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, reviewed in 2021 is to attend to some basic challenges of small businesses in the country.
Katagum stated this at the inauguration of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, and Focal Persons Group in the implementation of the revised National Policy on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, in Abuja.
The minister said with the approval of the 2nd revised National Policy by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, on March 17th, 2021, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, sought the assistance of the investment climate reform facility to initiate a coordination Mechanism as well as put in place a monitoring and evaluation system for effective tracking of the various MDA-specific actions.
“This is why the Policy is focused on Finance, Skills development, Marketing, Technology, Research and Development. Other areas of priority include Infrastructure and Cost of Doing Business, Institutional/Legal/Regulatory issues and awareness creation on NMSMEs” she said.
She said SMEDAN, which is the coordinating agency for NMSME development, has put together a strong team to serve as the national secretariat for the implementation of the national policy, adding that key ministries, departments and agencies which are instrumental to the development of the MSME subsector have nominated focal persons that will serve as the contact points and initiators for the policy recommendations.
The minister disclosed that a high-level monitoring and evaluation team comprising public, private and civil society interests will also be inaugurated to ensure that the policy is implemented to a reasonable level between now and 2025 when it will be due for another review.
A statement by Comfort Philip-Egwu, a Senior Information Officer at the ministry, said the team will measure the level of implementation and the feedback that will form a major point of discussion at both the Technical Implementation Committee and at the National Council.
Earlier, the Acting Director- General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, Mr Olawale Fasanya, noted that the current national policy is obviously an improvement on previous editions with clear recommendations of what the various actors and enablers should be doing to ensure that Nigeria’s MSMEs subsector is not just active but equally globally competitive.
Fasanya further disclosed that the revised national policy on MSMEs largely seeks to ensure MSMEs in Nigeria are active, innovative and globally competitive, adding that, with over 39 million MSMEs, according to the 2021 SMEDAN/NBS survey report, the minimum target to be realized before the expiration of the policy in 2025, is to ensure an enabling environment is created for each of the MSMEs to grow and create a minimum of one extra employment which currently stands at over 61 million and also push the subsector’s contributions of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, from the current 49 per cent to 70 per cent.
