FCT Minister Muhammad Bello
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello, on Thursday in Abuja inaugurated an 11-member Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Council to stimulate small scale businesses in the FCT.
Speaking at the inauguration, Bello said that the council became necessary because of the unhealthy consequences of the fragmented approach to MSMEs development in the country.
“The Council will, therefore, act as aggregators across the states, coordinate the implementation of the National Policy on MSMEs to provide linkages and synergy among all stakeholders.
“This is with the goal of ensuring the effective execution of the National Enterprise Development Programme”, he said.
The minister, who was represented by the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr Christian Ohaa, said that the council would give greater impetus to the economic diversification agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“This is to improve Nigeria’s rating in the Global Ease of Doing Business scale and also drive poverty alleviation and craete jobs.”
He expressed the commitment of the FCT administration “to creating enabling environment and providing the necessary logistics for growing MSMEs and encouraging stakeholder engagement in the sector.
“We are strengthening the capacity of the Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA) to drive the sector in the FCT as well as to effectively function as the secretariat for the council.”
The permanent secretary, who doubles as Chairman of the council, thanked the minister for appointing them and assured him that the council would discharge its assignment with utmost dedication and spirit of patriotism.
Ohaa, who was represented by Director, Economic Planning, Research and Statistics, expressed the hope that the FCTA would provide the needed support to the council to ensure that its operations were in line with the policy of Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria.
He, therefore, called on stakeholders to join hands with the council to actualise the desired results.
Dr Dikko Radda, the Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), said in his keynote address that there were about 37 million MSMEs in the country.
Radda said that 59.7 million persons, representing 84.2 per cent of the nation’s labour force, were employed by MSMEs.
The SMEDAN boss, who was represented by an official of the agency, Mr Monday Ewans, also said that the FCT had 273,086 MSMEs in 2010, adding that the figure grew to 485,055 in 2013.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the council is composed of members from AEA, Central Bank of Nigeria, Corporate Affairs Commission, Bank of Industry, SMEDAN and Standard Organisations of Nigeria.
Other member-organsations are the Industrial Training Fund (FCT Office), National Agency for Foods and Drugs Administration and Control and the African Women Enterprise Programme. (NAN).
