NECA harps on healthy economy to boost entrepreneurial growth

..Tasks govt on TSA

UNTIL there is a genuine effort to improve the health status of the nation’s economy, the call for more entrepreneurs may continue to be a mere campaign with little result.

Director General of the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA), Segun Osinowo, said this as he lamented that new businesses could hardly survive in current economic clime.

Osinowo, who spoke ahead of the NECA’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) summit holding in Lagos, said it was still a common belief that skills acquisition, education and entrepreneurial training were sufficient to create employment and enhance a successful life. While the conditions are necessary, he said they are no longer adequate without the right economic policies and business-friendly environment to support those small and medium scaled enterprises when they are created.

Meanwhile, Osinowo has advised the Federal Government to grant exception to self-funding and service rendering parastatals with statutory responsibilities to deliver public goods and services as part of measures to successfully implement the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

Commending the Federal Government for implementing the policy, he explained that the only ‘snag’ in the new dispensation is that the activities of self-funding and service rendering parastatals with statutory responsibilities to deliver public goods and services have been “highly curtailed if not paralysed”.

He cautioned that the funds of these agencies should not be treated as revenue to government, adding that the Acts setting them up mandates the Agencies to render annual Income and Expenditure on the funds under their custody.

He said the exemption that has been given to Agencies such as Bank of Industry (BoI), Bank of Agriculture (BoA), Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), should be extended to similar Agencies and Parastatals.

Explaining further, he said: “: For Agencies of government that generate their own income who are partially or fully funded outside the Budgetary Allocation, who have responsibility of rendering services to the private sector through funds generated, we are concerned that these agencies’ performances might be negatively impacted through difficulty in accessing necessary funds as and when required to function optimally. Examples are the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) that manages the Employee Compensation Scheme, Industrial Training Fund (ITF) responsible for training funds reimbursements, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) that are saddled with payments of capitations and other obligations to HMOs and in effect Care Providers, among others”.

He said: “if care is not taken, the operations of the agencies may be crippled if there is no adequate framework for them to access their warehoused funds under the TSA

According to him, there is no doubt that the future of women empowerment and youth employment is self-owned businesses, but without a concrete focus on business survival (the demand end of labour market), it would lead to more frustration among the people.

“If the economy is unhealthy, no matter the effort you put into it, such as entrepreneurship skills and improving education, it will not be able to get businesses to thrive. Yet it is businesses that provide jobs.

“The focus simply should be sustainable enterprises and it should actually be the open door to job creation. If you are able to sustain enterprises and make them thrive, then jobs will be created,” he said.

Other issues that must be considered for sustainable enterprises, Osinowo added, are infrastructural stock and policy, coupled with their consistency, coherency and transparency.

He said while NNEW had concentrated efforts on raising women entrepreneurs in the last 10 years, which he commended, the next phase must accommodate advocacy for right environment for businesses to survive.

President of NNEW, Lola Okanlawon, said the network of entrepreneurial women, an arm of NECA, was set up to identify and proffer solutions to challenges facing women entrepreneurs.

Okanlawon said though the platform had trained more than 3000 women and 1000 teen entrepreneurs, NNEW is not resting on its oars to enhance their sustainability.

The 2015 NNEW summit, slated for October 29-30, 2015, would avail women entrepreneurs the opportunity to tap into the wealth of experience of leading personalities through networking. The summit tagged: “Footprints”, is the second edition of NNEW’s annual conference and would focus on rebranding, refocusing and repositioning your business for success and sustainability.

Among the speakers are the pioneer deputy managing director, Forever Living Product (Nigeria) limited, Susan Oyemade; Chief Executive Officer, ENL Consortium. Dr. Vicky Haastrup; Principal Consultant, Fruition Image Consultants Limited, Ifeoma Williams and former president, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Bunmi Oke among others.