Taiwo Hassan 
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is set to review its policy that will see the country’s SMEs database, currently standing at 40 million, increase at the end of the day.
The Deputy Director, Partnership and Coordination, SMEDAN, Dr Bunmi Kola Dawodu, who disclosed this to New Telegraph in Lagos, said SMEDAN policy was set for a review later this year, and expected to categorise SMEs into nano, micro, small and medium.
Specifically, he pointed out that Nigerians should expect increment in the database of SMEs beyond the current 40 million because of the number of people venturing into SMEs businesses.
He admitted that many SMEs were facing numerous challenges, ranging from funding and other needs. But SMEDAN is working round the clock to make sure SMEs make positive impacts towards contributing immensely to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Dawodu said: “Well, you want me to talk about this, the challenges SMEDAN is facing, right? There’s a lot of challenges right that we’re facing with, you know, putting SMEs right, but I’d rather talk about the solution. Maybe we can pick up from there.
So one of the few things that we have done is to look at our policy, and then our policy is due for review this year, and then this policy categorise SMEs into nano, micro, small and medium. And so, the categorization has done a lot for us.
“Okay, so we’ve been able to separate those that actually need, you know, support, those that need funding, those that need information. This is what the categorisation does for us. And so, structuring the ecosystem is one of those challenges, and then this categorization has helped us to solve that challenge.”
The SMEDAN chief explained that, “the second thing is that with this, our director general, is a new strategy, you know, to for us to now. Then, you know, help SMEs, or support SMEs in their growth and development. “Is the grow acronym that I talked about, the guidance, the resources, opportunities.
And then, you know, workforce support. This is also to then, you know, shapen the structure of the ecosystem. And then help SMEs understand where and what they really need. “Because if you put 1000 SMEs in this room, 9999 99,000 will tell you they need funding.
And but that’s not really the truth, right? We just they might need funding, but, I mean, we need to structure them, make them, you know, prepared for that funding. And that’s just a part of the things that we’ve been able to try. “So we have a four modular capacity building training program that we have.
It’s to inspired, create, start and skill. So for every business owner, you either need this kind of training model, okay, you need the Inspire training model or the create training model, or the start or the skill.
“So usually, first of all, we put them through this capacity building because, you know, you also need that business skills.
“You also need that entrepreneurship skills before you can say, Oh, this is, to know what I’m doing, where I’m going, or how I’m going to do it. You know, entrepreneurs are really trying. They are resilient. They are important. “They do a lot, you know, for the growth of the economy.
And so we need to give them special attention. And that’s why we created that inspired, create, start and skill model for training. “So this, first of all, guide them and shaping them before we can then push them to all the formal support that we have for them.
“You talked about reviewing your policy for the SMEs. But what can you really say about the database of SMEs? “We have a good database. Currently, we’ve 40 million plus SMEs in the country. So our review policy is expected to capture this database.”
