At ANMC 2022, experts enumerate ways to power entrepreneurs for economic prosperity

Management experts at the ongoing Annual National Management Conference of the Nigerian Institute of Management, on Monday, laid bare various policy frameworks and practical steps the government can take to give entrepreneurs and small businesses a needed boost and engender economic growth.

The experts, who made various presentations which centred on the general theme of the year’s conference, ‘Public Policy Management and Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria,’ emphasised the need for urgent policy reviews and implementation of regulatory measures with effective enforcement mechanisms through constant monitoring and evaluation.

In her welcome address, the acting President of the Institute Dr (Mrs) Christiana Atako, said this year’s conference was arrived at “when the Institute came to the sad realisation that one of the major reasons the nation’s economy has not made meaningful progress over the years is the scant regard for putting in place appropriate public policies that drive entrepreneurship development.”

She advised that “entrepreneurship can be encouraged by efforts ranging from specific targeted support such as technical assistance to small firms to general macro policies aimed at maintaining a stable economic environment. It should be noted, however, that small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) policy does not parallel entrepreneurship policy. Small and medium enterprises policy involves policies directed specifically at supporting SMEs (including self-employment) and can be justified on several grounds. This policy approach commonly involves the creation of specific government agencies that support SMEs in a range of small-firm support programmes and subsidies.”

The main theme speaker and Chief Executive Officer of Fundquest Financial Services, Mr Bisi Oni, decried the abysmal level of attention entrepreneurs get from government at all levels, despite being a huge employer of labour and contributing nearly half of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.

Oni emphasised the need for the business environment in the country, noting that the ease of doing business in Nigeria is still poor and detrimental to small businesses. Access to credit facilities, low-interest rates on credit, ease of business registration and a seamless tax payment system are some of the measures that can boost the growth of small businesses, he noted.

“Business-friendly public policy is correlated with a lower poverty headcount at the economy level. The conduit for poverty reduction is business creation, both as a source of new jobs and as a manifestation of thriving entrepreneurship,” he said.

In another presentation, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano, Habu Mohammed, explained that the environment of business is dynamic and influenced by factors both internal and external.

“Essentially, what makes businesses thrive in this environment is the ability of the public authority to initiate regulatory measures with effective enforcement mechanisms through constant monitoring and evaluation.

“Administrative issues, such as bureaucracy, corruption and policy inconsistency, can best be addressed where good governance is at the heart of policy issues. There is also the need to address the key challenge of infrastructure, especially epileptic power supply in order to stop the exodus of manufacturing industries from the country,” Mohammed posited.

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