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…as FG extends window by 3 months

By  Yinka Kolawole

Business registration in Nigeria rose by about 202 percent, jumping from 54,000 to 163,000, within 6 months of introducing the special window for subsidized registration costs.

Osinbajo in Garki, Abuja market, interacting with traders

This was revealed in a presentation on National MSMEs Clinics held at the first quarter MSMEs stakeholder meeting held at the Presidential Villa, according to a statement made available to Vanguard yesterday, by Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President.

FG extends registration of business names by 90 days

The federal government had in October 2018, through the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), reduced the cost of business name registration from N10,000 to N5,000 to help as many micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as possible formalize their businesses.

Spurred by the successes recorded in the discount window, the federal government has directed the CAC to extend by three months, the special window for MSMEs.

The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who gave the directive at the stakeholders’ meeting, also directed the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to speedily harmonise issues relating to overlapping responsibilities for product registration.

He also instructed relevant government agencies to speedily come up with better funding strategies for small businesses in the country.

Osinbajo stated: “Having listened to all the issues raised in the report and from your various contributions about funding, I think you should come up with suggestions on better funding for startups and MSMEs, we need to address this issue as quickly as possible.”

The vice president said relevant agencies of government must ensure that loan beneficiaries were equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to better manage their businesses. He urged regulators in the MSMEs sector to leverage technology to help build capacity for owners of small enterprises as well as broaden the impact of their interventions.

Osinbajo assures on completion of 2nd Niger Bridge

Osinbajo also solicited the support of the relevant agencies for the Shared Facilities project for MSMEs which has already commenced in locations across the country.

He noted that the clinics have been held in 23 states of the federation while One-Stop-Shops have been established in seven cities and shared facilities built in Oyo and Bauchi States.

In his remark, Managing Director of Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr Kayode Pitan, emphasized the need to establish a company to de-risk BoI loans to MSMEs, adding that the bank was working with Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to enhance access to finance for MSMEs.