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SMEs, critical to tackling unemployment —Oteh

By on May 3, 2014

The Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms. Arunma Oteh, has said the nation cannot afford to ignore Small and Medium Enterprises, noting that the group is critical in tackling unemployment.

She made this known during the 20th annual conference of World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Wednesday.

The conference, which was hosted by Bayelsa State, had participants drawn from various SMEs operators in Bayelsa and investment experts from Africa.

She said research work by international institutions such as World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations had shown that SMEs were important for economic growth in both high income and low income countries.

Oteh said, “SMEs do not only contribute to the GDP growth and creation of decent jobs but also enable inclusive growth due to the broad based population participating in the economy through millions of SMEs.

“Globally, SMEs account for over 95 per cent of the business population, constituting between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of employment.”

She said she had no doubt that the Bayelsa State government’s initiative would positively impact on the state’s economy by rejuvenating the private sector.

The initiative would also stimulate entrepreneurship among the enterprising youths of the state and create an ecosystem for SMEs to thrive, Oteh added.

Highlighting the importance of the SMEs in select countries, the SEC boss said 96 per cent of businesses in Nigeria fell in the small business category.

She said SMEs contributed 75 per cent to employment in Nigeria, stressing that it was also contributing 47 per cent to GDP.

Oteh said in a country like China, 99 per cent of businesses fell into small businesses while Japan had 95 per cent of its businesses in SMEs.

She commended the efforts of Governor Seriake Dickson and his administration to diversify the state’s economy by focusing and providing support for SMEs.

She said, “Setting up the Bayelsa SME fund, the Bayelsa SME Council and Bayelsa Micro finance Agency are all significant and commendable steps that will surely boost entrepreneurship in this state.

“We do recommend that in addition to these efforts, the government considers setting up business incubators to provide not just financial support not SMEs but also nurture them holistically to grow into bigger productive engines of growth.”

In his remarks, Governor Dickson said his administration was pioneering a revolution in order to engineer the state’s economy.

He said that his government was preparing a state for life beyond oil, adding that SMEs remained the way forward.

Dickson also stressed the importance of security in actualising economic growth and development.

He expected the summit to come up with solutions on how to advance knowledge of small businesses and how to confront challenges of SMEs.

[Punch]