CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of Spectra Industries Limited, Duro Kuteyi, has lamented that the ease of business in the country has not favoured the Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs).
He stated this while speaking during the opening ceremony of Spectra Factory Shop at the Oko-Oba area of Agege where the outfit is located.
“when you talk from the point of energy, the government has not been good to us in the area of supply, we are not having public electricity, we are paying much for diesel and the cost for diesel is going to keep a lot of people out of business.
“For example before this horrible period, we were paying like N400,000 in a month for diesel, now we are paying N1.8m for diesel so you can see we need to do more in order to cover for it to remain in business.”
He also said that the cost of raw materials is another thing as it has skyrocketed beyond reach because there is no safety on the farms, noting that the people are running from the farm.
“We are in agro-processing; it means these things have to come from the farm and when people are running away from the farm and those who are still on the farm are paying heavily to be able to harvest their produce, then we will have high prices of raw materials.”
He said the SMEs have been suffering, and that it is the government that determines the way and the progress SMEs can make, stressing that sometimes the government will bring a policy or the other that puts SMEs at disadvantage.
“Like now what SME is suffering those who are in sweet drink they are been tax by custom, how many can he make in a year. Can you compare them with the multinationals that when they press a button you have millions of bottles coming out?
“Now it means those SMEs will either close shop or result to doing other things and abandon what they have set up to do because what they will be paying is enough to put them into bankruptcy so that is the life of the SME in Nigeria.
Speaking further he said it has not been easy and that it is like the government has not actually thought about agro-processors either big or small ones.
Speaking on the factory shop he said the company is located within seven housing estates and that it is important to open a shop where people around the various estates can come and get their products without necessarily moving out of the area before they get their products.
Modupe Kuteyi, Executive Director of the outfit said that the factory shop is a shop that will enable the firm to serve the community better and a means of introducing their products to the community.
She said Spectra industries limited is known for producing functional foods that impact the health of the consumers.
Speaking further, she the firm is working with the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) to ensure that the products produced in the outfit go beyond the shores of Nigeria.
“the kind of service we have rendered in the past 30 years we want to improve upon it, we want to make sure that our products are well standard so all the time we train and retrain our staff on how to improve on what they do, she added.
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