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2021: Establishment of Enterprise Hubs Will Unlock Growth for MSMEs in Nigeria - Seye Olurotimi

MSME - Policies, Acts, Rules & Regulations	1175 VIEWS
MSME - Policies, Acts, Rules & Regulations
1175 VIEWS

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Monday, January 25, 2021 / 11:07 AM / Ottoabasi Abasiekong for WebTV / Header Image Credit: Concise News

Intentional Policies driven by the Federal and State Governments towards establishing Enterprise Hubs across the nation will unlock the growth of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs in Nigeria. Mr. Oluseye Olurotimi Founder/President of MSME Africa advocated for this in a conversation on "How Nigerian MSMEs Can Scale Growth In 2021".

He said it was important for specialized hubs to be developed for MSMEs that cover key segments of the economy like fashion, technology, manufacturing, and agribusiness in the country.

The hubs according to him should enable infrastructure like the provision of power, water, access roads, and broadband fiber optic, which will boost productivity for the economy.

In addition to the enterprise hubs he called for transparency in regulations and a friendly regulatory environment in the country, that will support MSMEs who are economic drivers in the nation.

Looking at the various interventions of the Federal Government for MSME development from the 'MSME Survival Funds', 'Youth Development Fund' to the 'Trader Moni' initiatives, Mr. Olurotimi called for effective 'Monitoring and Evaluation' to ensure that the support measures are implemented even down to micro-businesses who constitute over 70% of the MSME ecosystem.

The MSME consultant also harped on robust and strategic collaboration between the Government and Private sector at the Federal and State level. This according to him will see more effective ventures and enterprises because of the inputs of business leaders and technocrats in policies.

He commended the Office of the Vice President that coordinates the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) that drives the Ease of Doing Business reforms in the country for moving Nigeria upward from 146 to 131 out of 190 countries in the World Bank "Doing Business Ranking".

On businesses that will be the big winners in 2021, he listed the following segments of the economy which include;

E-Commerce
Agribusiness
Logistics
Healthcare/Pharmaceutical
Fintech

Giving his perspective on the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN's) monetary policy, he described the CBN as very supportive with the revised Loan-to-Deposit Ratio (LDR) of 65% which has led banks to increase credit to the private sector to the tune of N3.97trn in 2020.

Speaking on the Finance Bill 2020 that was signed into law last year by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Founder of MSME Africa, said it was designed to address the challenges of MSMEs and create an enabling environment for them.

In addition to the Finance Bill 2020, he lauded the CAMA Act 2020 which has enabled the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to upgrade its portal, to the level of carrying out virtual registrations for businesses end-to-end.

He added that "The upgrade of the CAC portal will help to reduce the time for registration of businesses, which is a major bottleneck in the country".

Mr. Olurotimi advised the CAC to explore deploying a short-demo video, that guides users of the website on how to register their businesses in a seamless process.