By Rosemary Iwunze

Former Managing Director of Eco Bank Plc, Mr. Patrick Akinwuntan, has said the SME sector had the potential to eradicate unemployment and poverty in Nigeria.

Akinwuntan disclosed this at the 20th Annual lecture and 29th anniversary celebration of the Catholic Brothers United of St. Agnes Catholic Church, Lagos.

In his opening remarks as chairman of the event, which has the theme “Entrepreneurship drive: A tool for mitigating unemployment for national growth”, he noted that Nigeria should leverage entrepreneurship to re-establish itself in its rightful place.

He said: “With reported over 40 million registered businesses in Nigeria, the SME sector has the potential to eradicate unemployment and poverty in Nigeria when leveraged and supported fully.

“According to Ban ki-moon former UN Secretary General, ‘Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the global economy. They are the source of most new jobs and are a key driver of economic growth.

”The success of SMEs is critical to achieving sustainable development and reducing poverty worldwide.’ We could or should leverage entrepreneurship to re-establish our country in its rightful place, which is leadership of Africa and a place amongst the highly developed economies of the world.

“The Nigeria I grew up in demonstrated enviable entrepreneurial DNA and potential to rule the world. We produced lots of agricultural products, including cocoa, groundnuts, coal, rubber, oil palm, Ccashew, to mention a few.

”We manufactured tyres (Mitchelin and Dunlop), car batteries, fridges (Kollington), Thermocool, biscuits, peppermint, glass sheets, bottles, flasks, iron rods, billets, aluminium roofing sheets etc.”