MSME Members Seek Government Support on Infrastructure

The federal government has been advised to encourage and give more support to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSMEs) by providing enabling infrastructure like roads and electricity in other to diversify and improve sources of revenue for the country.
The charge was given recently by Mr. Chinedu Amadi, the president of the Organisation of Youths of International Trade and Commerce during a workshop held at the Technology Incubation Center in Agege.
The event was organized to educate entrepreneurs on better ways that will ensure that their products are well packaged and designed to meet international standards, as well as compete in the world market, which would in turn attract foreign exchange to the producer and improve the economy of the country.
Amadi noted that there is a need for the government to collaborate with local producers to diversify the economy from the long dependency on crude oil which in no time may vanish from the global world.
He used the COVID-19 era to give an example where everybody was under lockdown while farmers who entered into production were smiling home with cash while oil production went down, cutting off all the revenue which the government depended on.
” We are talking about how to change our non-oil export to attract foreign earnings to Nigeria and better our lives,” he said.
He explained that a time will come when Nigerians will no longer depend on foreign foods like noodles to feed on, adding that “we need to look inward and improve on our local foods”.
He further explained that presently, Nigerian food is being appreciated abroad “but all that our local producers need is on how to package them for more attraction”.
The organizer of the workshop, Mr, Michael Ukeje, in an interview with journalists afterward said the purpose was to encourage a driven export market by ” teaching our producers how to package their product to enable them to sell in the international market and make hard currencies”.
According to him, at the end of the workshop, some products that meet the standard will be chosen and the producers will be given money as a form of empowerment to enable them to produce in large quantities and then take them to the international market.
“This will encourage and sustain the producer the stress. When you have market driving your production, you are good to go”.
Earlier in his keynote address, Dr. Olusola Omowumi, an industrial and project consultant and Director Federal Institute For Research Organisation (FIRO), Oshodi, said despite the fact that oil has contributed to boosting the revenue of Nigeria, the effects have not assisted to alleviate poverty and unemployment currently plaguing the nation.
 This, he explained, remains a very strong reason to diversify and look beyond oil for the future well-being of the country.
According to him “If Nigeria aims to be real “giant of Africa” as claimed, efforts must be made by the government to diversify non-oil sector, otherwise, it is yet to come.”
He further noted that the non-oil sector has the capacity to provide food for the human population, act as a source of raw materials for industries, and thus promote economic growth and poverty reduction.
“In the year between 2008 and 2014 non-oil revenue marginally increased from 45.09 percent to 48.02 percent based on (National Bureau of Statistics 2014).”
This he claimed means that it was the period government devoted much effort to revenue generation from the non-oil sector.        

In his conclusion, he noted that there is a lot of revenue to be generated in Nigeria if the government will focus on non-oil products to shove up non-oil export.
“We must shift from the exportation of raw material to semi-finished goods with higher value, create good bilateral relationships that encourage trade, not just import as enabling environment for business growth and institute policy that favor growth in the critical sector,” he added.
Dr. Julie Momah, the Zonal Director,  Technology Incubation Center Lagos, said the purpose of the program is as an off-taker platform where the products made in Nigeria can be exported.
According to her, “most of our products are waiting to go to the export market for the best standard because they have been certified by NAFDAC and they are ready to be imported to markets outside the country. 
” Our national board for technology exhibition is an agent of Federal Science of Technology. The purpose of the organization is to nurture small and medium entrepreneurs in the area of value addition, in area of business and development level of commercializing them to the market.”

Attribution-This Day