Governor Dikko Radda has revealed plans by his administration to establish a Ministry for Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises, MSMEs.
Radda who made this known in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, CPS, Ibrahim Mohammed, said this during the commemoration of the 2023 World Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Day.
He said it would play a vital role in the economic growth of the state.
According to the governor, the Nigerian economy would have since gone comatose if not for the
efforts of thousands of SMEs in the country.
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He noted that, even though the enabling environment for several MSMEs to thrive is absent, Radda, argued that many small business ventures have been helping to create massive jobs, while also tackling youth unemployment in recent years.
“Small and medium-sized enterprises, (SMEs), account for up to 90% of businesses, 60% to 70% of employment, and they account for half of global GDP, according to the United Nations”, the governor said.
He added that in Nigeria, the feats performed by many SMEs cannot be enumerated, but that is not to say that everything is now Uhuru for many small business enterprises in the country.
Radda further maintained that the SMEs still need government support in many ways, even though
the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency, SMEDAN, has been coming to their aid.
He explained that having a Ministry of MSMEs in Katsina is one sure way to help nurture, grow and ensure the survival of businesses with little capital in the state, assuring that the proposed ministry will be given maximum support, to actualize its intended objectives.
“The MSMEs Ministry we are planning to establish will be under my watch. I will ensure it gets the necessary supervision it needs, administratively.
The template I used in repositioning SMEDAN, between 2016 and 2022, when I was the Agency’s Director General, will be adopted for our proposed ministry, the governor said”.
(Editor: Ena Agbanoma)
