Kogi MSME Clinic: Another Evidence of Yahaya Bello’s Genius, By Hafsat Ibrahim
In Nigeria, there are officially 41.5 million Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs), comprising of at least 41.4 million micro enterprises; and 73,081 small and medium enterprises. Together, they contribute about 50 percent of GDP, are responsible for 59.6million jobs, which represent 86.3 percent of national workforce.
They also contribute 7.64 percent of export receipts.
Undisputedly, MSMEs play important roles in the global economy. According to the International Trade Centre (ITC), an agency jointly owned by the United Nations and World Trade Organisation (WTO) dedicated to supporting the internationalisation of small businesses, MSMEs account for more than 90 percent of all businesses and around 70 percent of jobs worldwide. This category of businesses also stimulates economic growth and provides employment for large sections of society including women, young entrepreneurs and poor communities.
Prior to Governor Yahaya Bello’s administration, Kogi State was regarded as one of the states in Nigeria with lowest productivity rate, least economic viability and poorest revenue generation. Due to this sad reality, the Governor decided that in order to reduce the reliance on government resources, there was the need to denounce the myth of a civil service state, by creating viable MSMEs for people to do business and add value to their lives.
Governor Bello therefore recently unveiled the Kogi MSME Clinic during a workshop and exhibition organised in commemoration of the maiden edition of the international MSME Day at the Government House in Lokoja.
He noted that for far too long Kogites have depended on government as the main driver of the economy, hence the work force remained over bloated and government overloaded with paying of salaries, pensions, gratuity and other entitlement of civil servants both at the state and Local Government levels.
According to him, the sad reality is that government would need to deploy 80% of gross income each month to pay the civil servants, yet they constitute less than 1.8 % of the population of 4.5million people. He stressed that continuing on this track was both unsustainable and unwise.
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He recalled that when he took office, there was no existing MSME eco system or hub much less a dedicated agency like the Kogi Enterprising Development Agency (KEDA) which he established to coordinate and cater for the immediate and long term needs of MSMEs.
Giving that MSMEs are the major drivers of the economy, especially a non-industrialised society, his administration made sure that it created the agency through which entrepreneurship could be encouraged. He also built a thriving hub in the state in a bid to actualise the 4th agenda in his Blueprint which is robust youth engagement and women empowerment.
The governor stated that his government pursued this cause because it recognised that the growth of entrepreneurship and new venture creation would broaden the spectrum of every Kogi citizens who were willing to work hard to become financially independent.
According to him, “no matter how willing we are or hard we work, we cannot absorb more than 10,000 new workers into service within two terms irrespective of how many people retire from service. However with a bit of innovation and hard work, we can create 500, 000 new MSME businesses in the same time frame.”
The governor expressed his intention to achieve the feat before the end of his tenure, through the help of KEDA alongside other Ministries, departments and agencies.
Governor Bello noted that his government had made appreciable progress in enhancing entrepreneurs’ knowledge base, capital availability, improvement of overall ease of doing business and ensuring that the operating environment was free from disincentives such as insecurity.
He charged KEDA on the discovery of innovative ways in getting interested Kogi citizens into MSMEs in a profitable manner, improve the pace of its activities and bring existing businesses and government institutions into viable collaboration. He added that government was strengthening the capacity of women and youth in building viable businesses across all the sectors in the state.
Amid scarce resources, Governor Bello has no doubt transformed the state within six years in various sectors i.e. Infrastructure, Agriculture, Education, Health, among others. His vision for a prosperous future for the teeming youths of the state and the fact that he has set the foundation for that future stand him out as a statesman whose legacy would endure forever.
