SMEDAN moves to stimulate MSMEs operations through commercial banks’ financing

Bature Umar Masari, director-general, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), has disclosed that efforts are nearing conclusion to involve commercial banks in the finance of Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) operating in the country under the recently-launched National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP).

The director-general says the Agency is now looking beyond the contributions of known three implementing partners, namely Bank of Industry (BoI), Industrial Trainning Fund (ITF) and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to the

growth of MSMEs, adding that the involvement of commercial banks will further stimulate MSMEs operations and development.

He, however, laments the ‘uncoordinated interventions and development’ as being provided by three tiers of government, saying that “the major problem that bedevils the sub-sector is the issue of uncoordinated development. Over the years, local, state and federal governments are doing different interventions for MSMEs. So, there is no coordinated effort to see how these interventions can be harnessed for the benefits of MSMEs.”

Speaking at the 2014 SMEDAN management retreat held at Whispering Palms Resorts held Badagry, Lagos, at the weekend, the director-general, represented by Umar Mohammed Yari, DG special assistant, reveals that the agency was able to generate over 5,000 business plans and formed over 3,000 cooperatives in order for MSMEs to have easy access to finance.

While reviewing the achievements of the agency in 2014, Masari says, “In 2014, we were able to generate more than 5,000 business plans which we sent to Bank of Industry for funding and we were able to form more than 3,000 cooperatives; we also trying to see how they can get access to market so that all MSMEs coming on board and those that are expanding will have less challenges because the main challenge is funding and access to market.

“I think we have done a lot in that regard. Apart from Bank of Industry, we are exploring other avenues by bringing in commercial banks to collaborate and partner with us so that we can have more access to funding. We are not limiting the operation of National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) to three implementing partners – SMEDAN, BoI and ITF.

“In terms of funding, we are now expanding to bring in commercial banks on board so that we can collaborate and partner for our growing MSMEs to have access to funding that is why we are organising them into Cooperatives. We have also re-positioned our Zonal and State offices across the country to effectively tackle challenges that may impede MSMEs growth.

Businessday