By Franklin Alli

TheFederal Executive Council, FEC, will likely approve the implementation of a new national policy for the Micro, Small and medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sectors of the economy.
Recent data provided by the National MSMEs collaborative survey put the number of MSMEs in Nigeria at 17.6 million, employing about 32.4 million people, and contributing about 46.54 percent to GDP.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, gave this hint while fielding questions from Trade and Investment correspondents during a capacity building programme organised by the ministry in Abuja, recently.
Aganga disclosed that the old MSMEs policy had been revised and the new one which is adapted from UNCTAD’s Entrepreneurship PolicyFramework recommendations, will be endorsed by FEC early 2014.

“The National Policy on MSMEs dates back to 2007. After five years of implementation, the government decided to revise it, taking into account feedback and lessons learned, and updated it in order for it to be in tune with current challenges. The revised MSME policy and entrepreneurship strategy extensively integrated UNCTAD’s Entrepreneurship Policy Framework recommendations.

“It delineates several programmatic areas, namely: national entrepreneurship strategy, finance, institutional, legal and regulatory framework, human resources development, technology, research and development, extension and support services, marketing, infrastructure and awareness & networking.

“The revised policy proposes an institutional framework for policy implementation and monitoring, with SMEDAN as the primary responsible institution and the establishment of the National Council on SMEs as the apex organ for MSMEs development. It also includes an action plan and the institutional framework for implementation.

“Business associations, government officials, and relevant private and public sector institutions, engaged in the constructive review with the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SMEDAN). The Government aimed to ensure that the new national policy took stock of international best practices in MSMEs development, and responded to current challenges.

*The draft capitalizes on UNCTAD’s EPF in a coherent and complementary way.  UNCTAD also suggested to:
*Pay attention to the objective of entrepreneurship creation in the Framework and Action Plan;
*set a specific policy objective to generate start-ups in diversified industries and services outside farming;
*Specify actions for priority targets groups such as women youth, physically challenged people.

Meanwhile, Lagos state has the highest number of small and medium enterprises (4,535) while Osun state has the least (100).
Lagos state also has the highest number of micro enterprises (880,805), followed by Kano state (872,552), while FCT recorded the least (272,579).