The acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday in Sokoto, called on stakeholders in the country to promote Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), to stabilise the economy.
Osinbajo made the appeal when he opened a two-day nationwide MSMEs Clinic.
He said,” being one of the cardinal points of the present administration, it is important to deepen all of our engagements into agriculture which is what the government is focusing on.”
Osinbajo implored federal agencies like the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to partner the small and medium business owners. This, he said, would ensure that those making local products got to the formal market.
“The small and medium business owners should partner with all the government agencies by registering their businesses so as to get their products to the formal market.
“This country will soon pull out of recession; we have resources of every kind – gypsum, potassium – and there is no reason this country should not be the wealthiest in the world.
“We must grow what we eat and wear what we produce, ” he said.
The Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar, said that the clinic was aimed at looking into the comparative advantage on what the MSMEs were doing to improve their performances.
Abubakar said,” This is why the government agencies are brought forward to help improve the MSME business owners.”
Gov. Aminu Tambuwal commended the Federal Government for using the clinic to galvanise the sector in the states.
Tambuwal explained,”This would improve the cardinal injection to the development of N2 billion MSME loan with the Bank of Industry.”