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By Anthony Maliki
The Benue State Chairman of the Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Hon. Gadafi Asemanya Jnr. has expressed gratitude to the national officials of the body for organizing the NASME Day and Youth Empowerment Conference in Abuja recently.
He told Apex News Exclusive that the coming of entrepreneurs from the 36 states and FCT was a wonderful eye opener for many small-scale business owners on opportunities available in the sector.
According to him, it was the first in the history of the organization that such conference was taking place which not only brought SME holders but financial institutions involved in assisting business people.
Asemanya praised NASME’s National President, Dr. Abdulrashed Yarima for initiating awards to best exhibitors at the conference to encourage initiatives among small-scaler business owners.
The Benue State chairman stressed that such award is a propelling factor at pushing SMEs to do much and better their products.
The best exhibitor received N1million, second, N750,000, third N500, 000 while fourth and fifth got a consolation amount of N200, 000 each. NASME received about 1000 entries for the exhibition.
He said the call by the National President upon Bank of Industry (BOI), Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), ECOWAS, Fidelity Bank, Social Insurance and NAFDAC among others to support NASME activities and encourage Nigerians out of poverty and boast the enconomy of the country that is not stable, should be taken seriously.
He also urged state governors to encourage entrepreneurship in the domain in areas with best advantage to create opportunities for the youth to be engaged.
He expressed concern over the large amount of citrus annually wasted in Benue State and appealed to the Bank of Industry (BOI) and SMEDAN to come to their financial aid to establish a juice factory. He said the National President promised to support in that regard.
The state government should be able to partner with NASME in many ways to access grants and eradicate reduce poverty to the minimum especially in Benue State that people can no longer go to the farms.
He also said the Benue State House of Assembly should enact a law on small businesses and make NASME a member of the Governing Council in order to have a streamlined and effective method of involving SMEs.
Gadafi expressed delight on the involvement of women in small-scale businesses and donated some incisive books on behalf of the Benue State chapter to the National Woman Leader, Hajiya Amina Kabir Malah as show of appreciation.
The opportunity for female enterprenuer in Nigeria rollef out by the NASME National Woman leader for women should take advantage and apply to get the grants to enriching their businesses in their various state and communities.
He promised to support the woman leader at improving the lot of women through NASME.
On behalf of the Roni L G JIgawa state iam very appreciation of the Government council