By Sylvester Kwentua

Olufemi Ajadi, the Managing Director of Bullion Go-Neat Global Limited, is of the opinion that the acute lack of infrastructure in the country, remained the major hinderance to entrepreneurial viability in Nigeria.

Ajadi who made this known in a media parley with online journalists in Lagos recently, urged the federal government to do something about it as a matter of urgency.

Ajadi believes that no serious government would be comfortable with the level of disrepair of public infrastructure, as it is being seen in the country currently.

“It is obvious that there is an acute lack of basic infrastructure in the country. Many roads are impassable, and the several potholes in others lead to vehicular deaths within a short time of commuting on them”. Ajadi fired.

He wondered why this current administration had not thought it urgent enough to fix electricity, roads and water.

“My company has been forced to jettison reliance on public electricity supply for a long time now but that that had resulted to increase overheads and subsequently higher prices.” Ajadi informed.

In another development, Ajadi has charged Nigerian banks to create more Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) loans facilities in support of Nigerian entrepreneurs.

The move according to him, would not only help the capacity of Nigerian run companies, but also help boost the economy.

Ajadi said that funding and financial support, remained critical for survival of SMEs. He wondered why the government and it’s agencies had not seemed to appreciate this.

He believes that the current situation whereby emergent small firms are allowed to suffer due to the lack of finance, was not auguring well for the economy.

He said not only was it worsening the unemployment situation, but it was contributing to the spiraling prices of goods and services, because companies are forced to source capital from mainstream banks, at usually high interest rates, making them unable to sell at low prices.

He referred to the tag of small & Medium Enterprises SMEs as the engine of growth, saying they could only perform such roles when they are supported by government at the teething stage.

” I believe that the government can actually help SMEs in Nigeria, after all, these SMEs are helping the economy. SMEs help to create jobs, provide goods and services and should be supported by the government” Ajadi concluded.