BUSINESS

MSME, niche and the economy

&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Entrepreneurship is often used interchangeably with MSMEs&period; Entrepreneurship is not just about starting a business&comma; or spinning out a company from research&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a mindset or a way of thinking&period;  It is the ability to think and do things differently&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This definition by &nbsp&semi;Dr&period;&nbsp&semi;Dikko&nbsp&semi;Umaru&NewLine;Radda&comma; &nbsp&semi;the Director General and Chief Executive Officer of Small&NewLine;and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria &lpar;SMEDAN&rpar;&comma; essentially set&NewLine;the tone of conversation at the March 2020 Breakfast Meeting organized by Nigerian-American&NewLine;Chamber of Commerce&comma; with a &nbsp&semi;theme&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Sustainable&NewLine;Entrepreneurship- A Win-Win Strategy for the Future” which held at the Lagos Continental&NewLine;Hotel&comma; Victoria island on 19th march 2020&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Radda&comma; who was the guest&NewLine;speaker&comma; emphasized the spirit and letters of entrepreneurship which&NewLine;encapsulate the liberty to work and earn salary as well as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;exploit that knowledge&NewLine;to create new opportunities&comma;” provided the individual concerned &nbsp&semi;shares ideas freely and &nbsp&semi;think outside &nbsp&semi;the box either as core serial entrepreneur who&NewLine;has developed a range of business ideas&comma; or the social entrepreneur using&NewLine;technology to empower a target group&comma; or artists using their work to raise&NewLine;awareness for &nbsp&semi;social injustice&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Despite the glaring merits&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;of MSMEs in employment generation&comma; technological&NewLine;innovation and &nbsp&semi;opportunities for Foreign&NewLine;Direct Investment &lpar;FDI&rpar;as well as improved standard of living&comma; the DG &nbsp&semi;expressed concerns about the sector which has&NewLine;been technically hampered by &nbsp&semi;discouraging&NewLine;83&period;5 &percnt; inadequate power and water supply&semi; &nbsp&semi;67&period;9&percnt; funding deficit and 54&period;6&percnt; &nbsp&semi;transport hazards including 57&period;9&percnt; insecurity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Highlighting MSMEs 2017-2018&NewLine;data spread Nigeria&comma; Radda pointed out that &nbsp&semi;Lagos has &nbsp&semi;11&period;5&percnt; of the total 41&comma;543&comma;028 MSMEs in the&NewLine;county followed by &nbsp&semi;Oyo with &nbsp&semi;8&period;4&percnt;&comma;&nbsp&semi; Osun&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;4&period;1&percnt;&comma; Yobe &nbsp&semi;0&period;1&percnt;&comma; Bayelsa &nbsp&semi;0&period;4&percnt; and Borno &nbsp&semi;0&period;7&percnt;&period; &nbsp&semi;He&NewLine;noted that despite the somewhat discouraging factors&comma; MSMEs &nbsp&semi;contribute 49&period;78&percnt; to the GDP and 7&period;64&percnt; to&NewLine;export&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He therefore called &nbsp&semi;on stakeholders&nbsp&semi; to muster &nbsp&semi;all the supports it can for the sector to &nbsp&semi;survive &nbsp&semi;in this era of open markets&comma; competition and&NewLine;global economic crisis&period; He &nbsp&semi;promised that&NewLine;SMEDAN will continue to support strategic and sustainable entrepreneurship as&NewLine;it is the only guaranteed strategy for economic development&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They are major economic growth&NewLine;driver-supporting sector that not only contribute significantly to improve&NewLine;living standards&comma; but also bring substantial local capital formation and are&NewLine;responsible for driving innovation and competition in developing economics&comma;” he&NewLine;said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Earlier&comma;&NewLine;in his welcome address&comma; National President of NACC&comma; Otunba Oluwatoyin Akomolafe noted that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the theme&NewLine;comes at the right time as the country’s economy is affected due to the fall in&NewLine;crude oil price globally and the rising inflation orchestrated by current&NewLine;global health challenges&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He however reminded the&NewLine;guests that entrepreneurship for sustainable development is supposed to result&NewLine;in more than economic prosperity&comma; adding that sustainable entrepreneurs&NewLine;endeavor to manage the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;triple bottom line” of balancing economic health&comma; social&NewLine;equity&comma; and environmental resilience through &nbsp&semi;entrepreneurial demeanor&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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