Economy
THE Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), on Tuesday began a 4-day training of 400 entrepreneurs on how to facilitate the exportation of their goods and services.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme, which was organised in collaboration with Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC), drew participants from different businesses including food and non food items.
Inaugurating the training in Birnin Kebbi, Mr Olawale Fasanya, Director-General, SMEDAN, said that it was also going on simultaneously in Enugu, Cross River and Kwara.
Fasanya stated that 100 entrepreneurs would be trained in each of the four states.
The D-G, who was represented by a Deputy Director in the agency, Alhaji Ado Adamu-Bello, said: “I want to use this opportunity to express my profound gratitude to the NEPC for partnering with the agency to implement this programme.
“Over the years, countries have made significant progress in lowering trade tariffs and dismantling quota systems towards enhancing the export capabilities of their enterprises.
“International trade has increased and manufacturing has become more global, with developing, emerging and transition economies connecting with international supply and value chains in terms of both their exports and imports.”
According to him, governments had now realised that their export economies heavily depend on efficient export processing.
Fasanya said that there was a need to have a holistic approach for a more efficient management of end-to-end trade transactions.
“The result of the 2020 National Survey on MSMEs indicates that the MSMEs contributed 6.21 per cent to exports.
”This relatively low contribution to exports has exposed the fact that MSMEs are often faced with lots of challenges that restrict their entry into the export market.
“Not only do these challenges need to be studied in detail but a business-friendly ecosystem needs to be created in such a way that these enterprises will be able to participate in the global value chain on their own and ultimately generate economies of scale.
“Consequently, there is the crucial need for a clear understanding of export readiness status requirements, expectations for e-registration platform and other incentives to encourage export for MSMEs products and services,” Fasanya said.
He stated that the commission was strategically positioning MSMEs to take advantage of international supply and value chains.
Fasanya said that was why the agency developed the MSMEs Export Facilitation Programme to build their capacity and provide all relevant information to facilitate their effective participation in the export market.
He listed some objectives of the programme to include increasing awareness and sensitising MSMEs on the importance of enhancing exports.
Others, the D-G said, were to ensure excellent branding and packaging of products as well as services to meet both national and international standards, among others.
Fasanya said: “In our determination to address the challenges confronting the MSMEs in Nigeria in a holistic manner, the agency is implementing the One Local Government One Product (OLOP), in the 109 senatorial districts in the country.
“This ambitious effort of the agency is based on the successful implementation of the pilot phase of the OLOP programme in Katsina, Kaduna, FCT, Osun and Anambra States three years ago.”
He said the intervention activities under OLOP, among others, included; access to workspace, equipment support, access to working capital and capacity building.
Fasanya said that the agency was also implementing the Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS) for micro enterprises in Nigeria.
Addressing the participants, the Manger, Zenith Bank Plc, Kebbi branch, Alhaji Aminu Abba-Ali commended SMEDAN for organising the programme.
He assured the readiness of the bank to provide loans to eligible entrepreneurs to boost export potentials.
He stated that the bank had introduced a programme mainly for women entrepreneurs tagged: “Z-Woman” which was specifically meant to assist them across the nation.
One of the participants, Mrs Bilkisu Ahmed-Ibrahim described the training as enlightening, adding, ”we were taught how to rebrand and repackage products, how to relate with customers and how to make more sales to push our businesses forward.” (NAN)
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Tags: Alhaji Ado Adamu-Bello Alhaji Aminu Abba-Ali Bilkisu Ahmed-Ibrahim Olawale Fasanya SMEDAN
