The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) says it will continue to focus attention on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as the catalyst for Nigeria’s economic regeneration.
Its Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dikko Radda, said this on Wednesday in Abuja during a news conference by organisers of 2021 Advance Africa Entrepreneurs Business Owners and Executives International Conference and Exhibition.
Represented by Malam Ado Bello, the agency’s Deputy Director, Policy Planning Research Monitoring and Evaluation, Radda assured of the agency’s willingness to support efforts to promote entrepreneurship in the county.
The conference scheduled to hold in Abuja from Nov. 22, to Nov. 24, is with the title “Empowering Business and Building a Virile Nation through Partnership”.
Dr Eze Kennedy, Conference Director, Advance Africa Entrepreneurs Business Owners and Executives International Conference, said that the conference would be a rallying point for the business community, government and industry experts to engage themselves.
According to him, the event will provide the platform for cross fertilisation of ideas and solutions to improve the business environment, better the economy, and promote investments and entrepreneur relations.
“The three-day event expected to attract over 3,750 participants will provide a platform for intellectual engagement by different experts on improving the business and economic situation.
While adding that the event would expound on the prevailing opportunities in doing business in Africa, Kennedy said that it would also enable organisations to showcase their products and services.
According to him, the time has come to change the narrative and understand that MSMEs drive the economy.
“Here people focus more attention on the government to drive the economy but the MSMEs through government support are key to the stability of any economy.
“Business is what drives the economy and the highest employer of labour all over the world is not the government.
“As MSME players how do we solve the problems facing the subsector?
“We must admit that the major ingredient for the development of the sector is collaboration among relevant stakeholders including government, policy makers and operators in the sub-sector,’’ Kennedy added.
