The Federal Government has launched the ‘SMEDAN SELECT’ initiative to strenghten market expansion for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises as well as support the creation of brand names for Made-in-Nigeria products.
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The Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Dikko Umaru Radda said that the initiative which was designed to create brands from standard Made-in-Nigeria products in the food, fashion, beauty and goods sectors, would increase access to local, regional and global markets.
According to the DG, promoting the activities of the MSMEs is critical to the growth of the Nigeria economy as they collectively account for a majority of the enterprises in Nigeria and also account for the highest number of jobs created in the economy.
According to the National MSMEs Survey of 2017 conducted by the Agency in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria has a total of 41,543,028 MSMEs, employing 59,647,954 people and contributing 49.7 percent and 7.64 percent to nominal GDP and exports respectively.
He said, “Objectives of implementing SMEDAN SELECT are to increase access to local, regional and global markets for MSMEs; to support market expansion for MSMEs to support the creation of brand names for Made-in-Nigeria products as well as to increase awareness creation on standard Made-in-Nigeria products.”
Speaking at the launch of the SMEDAN SELECT Document,Wale Fasanya, Director, Planning, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Agency, who represented the DG said the products, numbering about 150, have been specially selected across Nigeria.
He said these products would be displayed and marketed on the SMEDAN Website and other social media handles.
Radda noted that MSMEs, if properly harnessed, could trigger an entrepreneurial revolution in industrialization, agriculture and commerce in Nigeria towards creating the platform for job creation, wealth creation, poverty alleviation and food security.
He said, “Globalisation process for MSMEs can be realized through any of a range of cross border activities, including trade, international investment, and participation in strategic alliances, partnerships and networking arrangements.”
Despite the success of MSME strategies in a few countries, he said majority of developing countries have found that the impact of their SME development programs on enterprise performance has been less than satisfactory.
He, however, encouraged Nigerians to patronize all the products profiled as a way of supporting the MSMEs to achieve their collective goal.
SOURCE: THE WHISTLER