FG reiterates commitment to MSMEs

VICE-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to promoting Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) with the inauguration of a cluster for fashion and shea butter processing, in Ibadan, on Saturday.

Speaking, Osinbajo stressed that the Ibadan cluster sited at Scout Camp Market, Molete, granted tailors affordable access to expensive equipment for sewing, embroidery, fixing of button holes and monogramming, while shea butter processors could toast, cool, crush and mill premium quality shea butter with high-tech equipment.

He added that the economies of scale of having such shared facilities and MSME clinics across the country was bringing MSMEs and regulatory agencies together to resolve problems thereby reducing cost and time of processing relevant licences.

The facilities, Osinbajo added, would have been pre-certified by the relevant agencies like NAFDAC, SON, ITF, NEXIM thereby removing layers of bureaucracy that in the past, held back many aspiring entrepreneurs.

Osinbajo added that the new initiative was in addition to the One-Stop shops that have been launched in some states to carry on the MSME Clinics’ interventions.

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“This initiative will provide MSMEs with access to fully-equipped cluster-style facilities, for which they can pay an affordable fee to operate out of. These facilities would have been pre-certified by the relevant agencies like NAFDAC, SON, ITF, NEPC, thereby removing layers of bureaucracy that in the past, held back many aspiring entrepreneurs,” Osinbajo said.

He also stated that the Buhari administration has partnered with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks, to launch a credit facility that will be made available to MSMEs with access to loans from N2 million to N10 million, with little or no collateral, for five to seven years, and at an interest rate of 5 per cent.

“All that you will need to provide is a bankable business proposal and guarantors,” Osinbajo said.

Earlier in his remark, the Economic Adviser to the president, Ambassador Adeyemi Dipeolu, explained that the scheme would adopt a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for implementation involving the federal and states government, especially their relevant agencies.

Noting that the federal government recognised that MSMEs contribute 80 percent of employment, he said the scheme is expected to guarantee improved quality and productivity level, improve the contribution of the MSME space to GDP, improve income levels and export receipts and to enable government provide direct technical support to boost the MSMEs space in the country.

Dipeolu added that the scheme would also provide opportunity for small businesses to use state of the art equipment for their production processes for a token.

He disclosed further that the partnership structure would provide for the state governments the opportunity to provide locations with adequate facilities, through select Federal Government agencies and with support from the organised private sector (OPS).