UZOMA Dozie, chief executive officer, Diamond Bank Plc, has said that small and medium scale enterprises, SMEs, remain the greatest contributor to economic development in any country.

At a media conference to herald the 7th edition of the bank’s pet project – Building Entrepreneurs Today, BET, Dozie said that given the required support, small scale businesses would be a major contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP.

He promised that this year’s edition would be bigger than the previous ones. “Small scale business remains the greatest contributor to national development and that is why at Diamond Bank we are putting our money where our mouth is by developing small businesses through BET,” Dozie said.

Similarly, Peter Bamkole, director, Enterprise Development Centre of the Lagos Business School, opined that until business development gets to the remotest part of the country, “the change we crave for as a nation might not be achieved.”

He said the 7th edition of BET is opened to all sectors, saying it would be bigger than the previous editions. Bamkole said the 50 successful candidates would go through a six-month intensive training after which 15 successful ones would then go to the next level after which five winners would emerge.

Aug 28, 2017 @ 1:00 GMT