The Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) has advocated stronger synergy among stakeholders in the nation’s industrial space to ensure sustainable growth of millions of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa.
The National President of NASME, Dr Abdulrashid Yerima, who made the call on Tuesday at the virtual meeting organized to inaugurate the technical committee of the forthcoming ECOWAS /NASME African MSME Summit and Exhibition, said that the call was crucial in maximising opportunities to grow MSMEs in the continent.
The industrialist explained that arrangements had been made by the association in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, including the ECOWAS Commission, to ensure a hitch-free 2022 African MSME Summit and Exhibition scheduled for October this year in Abuja.
He explained: “This is motivated by the ardent desire and zeal to grow and promote entrepreneurship. It is also crucial in strengthening formal and informal links and networks between operators of MSMEs.”
According to him, the 2022 Summit will provide a platform for stakeholders in the industrial space to deliberate on challenges, opportunities and proffer solutions to problems shared by African MSME and maximise the opportunities of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Yerima maintained that the 2022 Summit and Exhibition would be one of the most important economic/commercial initiatives of the association and ECOWAS Commission as part of a larger strategy to take advantage of AFCFTA, diversify markets and promote trade within the continent of Africa.
In his contribution at the parley, the ECOWAS Commission’s representative, Dr. Ume Essien Enobong, promised the commission’s support and partnership to facilitate the growth of MSMEs in Africa.
He recalled that partnership with the NASME started some year ago and restated the commission’s commitment to the project.
Earlier in his remarks, the association’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Eke Ubiji, listed inadequate capacity building, poor access to finance, infrastructural deficit, poor access to market and lack of adherence to quality and standard as some challenges undermining MSMEs’ growth in Africa.
Noting that globally MSMEs are seen as engine of economic development, he lamented thatthe level of importance attached to MSMEs in Europe was far from what obtained in Africa, hence the need for the summit.
The MSMEs Summit and Exhibition is an annual event which the NASME has been organizing in the past 18 years.
The last edition held last December in Abuja highlighted the immense potential the AfCFTA for economic development in Africa, through job creation, income generation, and structural transformation of Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA’s) economies.
