By Francis Akinnodi

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Government have been charged to play vital role in developing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) for significant development, income generation and poverty eradication in Nigeria.

Ondo State Chairman, Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), Greatsheyi Akintunde gave the charge while speaking with The Hope in Akure yesterday.
According to him, “Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) are regarded as a tool for economic development and as growth-supporting sector.

“They not only contribute to improved living standards, but also drive innovation and competition in developing the economy.

“Its a fact that MSME contributed 48 percent of national GDP, accounted for 96 percent of businesses and 84 percent of employment, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).”

He said the business trend across Ondo state encourages the present administration to undertake initiatives to promote the growth and development of the sector.

“All the stakeholders must work together on the new National Policy on MSMEs and strategises on ways to provide effective and efficient service delivery to grow MSMEs sub-sector in the state.

“Government at all levels must continue to provide the needed support to small business to drive the over-reaching need of poverty eradication through employment generation in Ondo State and Nigeria as a whole.”

He emphasized the need to dialogue with development partners, source for donor resources and improve the knowledge of key stakeholders as well as leveraging on the opportunity provided by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement-AfCFTA for MSME development.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the association to further reposition Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) across the state for efficient business management.
Akintunde urged business owners to make research important for development to increase the capacities of MSMEs operators as well as improve product packaging for export.

He however called on government to fund the sector by given out soft loans through CBN and other financial institutions to further grow the economy and improve local products.