Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, says that the Buhari administration is committed to providing economic direction and support to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, in order to raise hope, create jobs, and opportunities that will produce growth and development in the country.
Vice President Osinbajo, who spoke briefly at the end of the 33rd inaugural lecture of Babcock University Ogun State, noted that Federal and State Governments “must keep working on small businesses because that is the future of the country and There is no question that the economic future of Nigeria will depend on small businesses.”
Osinbajo explained that this was why the MSME Clinics were designed by the Federal Government to bring regulatory agencies, whose work affects the business experience of MSMEs to directly interface with small business owners in the same spot.
“What we do is to visit the States with the regulatory agencies, we would also go with FIRS, NAFDAC, SON, CAC, and co. These regulatory agencies would meet with the MSMEs and discuss their various problems. The obvious reason is that MSMEs are indisputably the engine of growth in any economy.”
Speaking specifically on recent government interventions, Osinbajo said that what the government did with MSMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic and right afterward is what he called the MSMEs Survival Fund.
He added that the African Development Bank, AfDB, has agreed to support the government with $500million for MSMEs in technology, in particular, noting that “this is something that will be very helpful in addition to the N75 billion (Youth Fund) which the government has set aside for young people in small businesses.
Other dignitaries at the event include Ogun State Deputy Governor, Noimot Salako-Oyedele; Former Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Boss, Babatunde Fowler; board member of Nigeria-Canada Trade and Investment Group, Taiwo Odutola among others.