…Nigeria’s non-oil export earnings insignificant – SMEDAN

….says power, friendly ports key to increased MSMEs’ exports

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – AS several challenges continue to pound the economy, the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, ACCI, Monday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to declare state of emergency in export trade and Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises’ capacity to drive exports.

The call for the state of emergency was made by the President, ACCI, Dr Al-Mujtaba Abubakar, in an opening remark to declare open the 2nd SME Conference organised by the National Chamber Policy Centre (NCPC) of ACCI, via webinar with theme ‘SMEs as Agents of Export Trade’.

Abubakar who was represented by
the Executive Director, NCPC, Olawale Rasheed, said it has become very imperative for state of emergency to be declared in SMEs.

He also decried the myriad of bottlenecks hindering the growth and development of SMEs in Nigeria country.

“In terms of accessing export market, our goal is to among other things remove all bottlenecks in the export process”, he said.

However, he commended efforts of regulatory agencies in the sector, but state of emergency remains panacea to galvanize MSMEs as it would speed up operations of domestic warehouses, fast-track opening of special export terminals at various ports across the country, and streamlining of export procedures to reduce timeline that had served as hindrance for exporters.

In a goodwill message, the Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, Olawale Fasanya who was represented by the Deputy Director, Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, SMEDAN, in the agency, Onesi Lawani, stressed why both public and private sectors need to focus support and development of the SME space following the backwardness bedeviling productivity limiting against rapid development of SMEs.

Fasanya lamented that despite Nigeria’s potential of non-oil export with higher MSME presence is still insignificant and poor when compared with MSMEs in neighbouring countries.

“Nigeria’s non-oil export earnings are insignificant when compared with other emerging economies.

“The total value of Nigeria’s non-oil exports in 2021 was $10.083 billion”, he said.

The SMEDAN boss made it clear that quick wins for MSME exports will take deliberate efforts of State governments to ease access to land, provision of Common Processing Facility (packaging, branding, etc) in Clusters, improvement in security, strengthening Export Processing Zones, EPZ, and awareness creation on export standards and potentials, amongst others.

Speaking extensively on the export market, he pointed that export trade is driven by innovation, creativity and competitiveness in terms of price and quality.

He expressed concern over high cost of doing business in Nigeria, which has stunted growth and development of MSMEs over the years.

Therefore, he urged the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and other development institutions to come up with creative support the MSMEs in access to financial resources, which they deserve.

He also also if the business environment is not toxic but there is, “Adequate power, friendly ports operations and friendly regulations are very instrumental to increasing MSMEs exports in Nigeria.”

Also in a goodwill message, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abuja Enterprise Agency, Shehu Abdulkadir represented by Senior Manager, Research, Statistics and Development, Usman Usman, in his presentation titled, ‘The Role of Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) in Promoting SMEs as Agent of Export Trade’ acknowledged that wealth creation and export trade potentials of MSMEs in Nigeria is heavily constrained in comparison to more advanced economies.

He said this is relatively because of poor commitment to the development of the MSMEs through the provision of access to finance and financial incentives, basic and technological infrastructure, adequate legal and regulatory framework, and commitment to building domestic expertise and knowledge.

He added that MSMEs are a very important part of the Nigerian economy although compared to other emerging markets; Nigeria has historically shown lack of commitment to building a strong MSME sector.

The MD also said that there is no gainsaying that developing and enhancing the capabilities of our export potentials remains critical to diversifying our economy.

According to him, AEA will not rest its oars in strengthening institutional synergy and building the capacities of local industries and MSMEs to produce and export their products to the international market.

“This in our view will lead to the attainment of our goal to expand our Non – Oil Exports and address the myriad of challenges we face as a country”, he said.

Also other stakeholders for government concentrate on MSMEs in rural areas where they can form clusters for them, and also provide power, adequate security and also access to finance to boost their productivity.