Why enterprises fail in Nigeria, Osinbajo tinkers with answers

At the maiden edition of the conference on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and exhibition, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo expressed concern over the high mortality rates of enterprises.
Osinbajo who was represented by the Minister of state for industry, trade and investment, Mrs. Mariam Katagum, at the event on Monday in Abuja, attributed shutting down to tax related issues and expressed the committing to the government’s resolve at reversing the situation.
He explained that the problem of multiple burdened of SMEs coupled with a lack of reliable data for statistical analysis were some of the main issues, including logistics bothering on high transportation costs, lack of quality delivery service and lack of quality infrastructure such as roads.
Osinbajo, who explained federal government’s determination at improving the ease of doing business as well as encouraging tax and fiscal responsibility, said that the presidential enabling business environment council has been doing a lot to address the thorny issue of multiple taxations which had debilitating effect on the businesses.
The vice president said that in order for SMEs to sustain their role of contributing to the mainstream economy, they have to implement effective strategies in all of their business operators, inclusive of logistics.
The federal government, he explained, was building massive investments in railways, power and road infrastructure to address the issues.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Olusegun Awolowo, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), said that with the abundance of human and material resources, Nigeria should have nothing to do with poverty.
Awolowo who was represented by Mrs. Gertrude Ukoanam, the Regional coordinator, South East, of the Council, reported that statistics had it that only a few countries could match Nigeria’s endowment in the area of natural resources and human talent.
`Nigeria has abundant of opportunities in the non-oil export sector which include agricultural commodities, semi-process products, fully manufactured products, handicrafts, solid minerals and many others most of which are yet to be fully implemented
“It is in the realization of this that this huge opportunities couple with observed awareness that the event of this nature are packaged and highly encourage by us to enlightened participant towards attaining success in the non-oil export business through the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement,’’ he said.
He explained that the AfCFTA would be the largest free trade area since the formation of the world trade organization.
“Given Africa’s current population of 1.2 billion people which is expected to grow to 2.5 billion by the year 2050, some of the expected benefits of this agreement includes but not limited to the following increasing trade among Africa countries which currently ranges between 15-18 percent only.’’
The continental free trade, he said would stimulate production through the development of regional value shares to ensure manufacturing agro-processing and other activities across the continent as stimulated to supply the market.
It would strengthen the capacity of Africa companies to access and supply world market as well as strengthen Africa economy and commercial diplomacy.
He called on SMEs to take advantage of the meaningful contributions of AfCFTA agreement to enhance their transformation of their businesses, to enhance their contribution to the growth of the national economy.
The conference which was organized by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) had as its theme, “Solution, strategies for resolving tax, regulatory, packaging and logistic challenges facing Nigerian SMEs”.
During the panel discussion, Dr. Chijioke Ekechukwu, a former Director General of ACCI, said Nigeria could solved the problems stunting SMEs by deploying political will.