In a move to effectively regulate operations through database capturing for small businesses in the country, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) has begun a registration exercise.
The move, Daily Sun gathered, is consequent upon the recent Federal Government’s call to ensure efficient policy formulation and action plan for Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Addressing journalists at a function organised by the agency, recently, the Director General of SMEDAN, Dikko Radda, said the ongoing mass registration which is currently at the pilot phase, would benefit SMEs by promoting capacity building and post-intervention support services for micro enterprises. According to Radda, this would enable the registered SMEs in the database to subsequently access finance, market, workspace, business, insurance, technology, among others.
The Chairman of SMEDAN, Otunba Femi Pedro, believes the registration scheme will also create millions of jobs across the entire country. “The justification for a database of grassroots entrepreneurs cannot be over-emphasised, including moving informal enterprises to the formal sector.’’ Pedro added that this would industrialise the nation, develop the rural economy, stem youth restiveness and unemployment, as well as create the platform for sustainable economic growth and development in the country.”
The ongoing registration exercise, which is being handled by a reputable international mass registration company, Michael Jacobs Limited, is targeting the integration of over 40 million micro, small and medium scale enterprises across the entire country, into the database.
According to the agency, over 37 million micro and MSMEs in the country still contribute 47.8 per cent to GDP but only 7.2 per cent to overall exports.
“At the heart of the weakness of the SMEs is the lack of electricity that makes our products uncompetitive. While India’s SMEs sector today has access to international markets as its major target, Nigeria is still grappling with access to electricity,” Pedro said.