‘FG should enact laws, policies to empower SMEs’

Federal Government should enact laws and policies that will favour Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in driving the economy out of recession.

An economic analyst, Charles Nicholas, who made the call said a recent research had shown that the government does not employ more than five million in its workforce. Also according to him only 40 per cent of the labour force are employed in the SMEs.

Nicholas, is the international coordinator of CEO Business Journal. Speaking with reporters in Abuja, ahead of the International CEOs Economic Summit scheduled to hold between November 28 and 29 in Lagos, with the theme: Promoting a private sector driven economy through partnerships, he said: “The SMEs are the main drivers of the economy and employ 40 per cent of the labour force. We did an estimate of the total number of staff being employed by the government and they are not more than five million.

“ Who takes care of the mass number of people? It is the SMEs and that is the main reason why the SMEs should be encouraged to grow.
“The SMEs also help in job creation because the government cannot employ everybody. If there are ten restaurants on a street, they need cooks, waiters and people to clean the plates.

“Also and more importantly, if the government does not implement laws to see how SMEs are empowered, the SMEs will still suffer. The SMEs are the main focus in the private sector. Some fast food companies import chips of potatoes (Irish potato) and other things from South Africa.

“Nigeria should stop importation of what it can produce locally. The government should enact laws and policies to boost SMEs. I mean empowerment that would be with less interest rates and policies that make banks to fund ideas and projects.”

He stated that globally, the need for strong and sustainable economic structure that is private sector-driven is seen to be the solution to creating massive job opportunities in many countries.

He added that any country that needed to build strong systems must embrace a fully inclusive private sector strategy, where government invests mainly on infrastructure and makes sustainable development and stable economic policies/laws that will strengthen business.
The summit is to convene a world class platform for strategic partnerships between CEOs on both sides of the business performance equation.