Everybody and businesses, are still struggling to cope with the ripple effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s economy.
In the last one year, millions of businesses have closed shops because they lacked the shock-absorber to survive a tough business operating environment, even as more businesses are about closing shops.
Experts expect more businesses to close shops in the coming weeks, unless certain steps are taken to avoid this imminent closure.
Insurance
A renowned economist and founder/CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise(CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf said, for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) to survive the tough times, there is an urgent need for the owners to position them with the full weight of the economic sustainability plan to restore confidence with the ease of doing business.
Yusuf, who was the former director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry(CCI), asserted that, a great number of Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs) do not have certification and insurance cover to mitigate business risk.
According to him, SMEs should understand the place of insurance cover to ascertain the longevity and productive outlook of their businesses
He said, now is the time for them to look into some of the insurance policies that will help and protect businesses from losses while he added that burglary insurance and fire insurance cover would mitigate against any eventuality that can stall business operations.
Investment Fund
On Youth Investment funds, he charged the government to provide Youth Investment funds to drive the needed growth by giving economic considerations to businesses that were struggling for survival, noting that, MSMEs are key economic drivers in every nation.
For middle income countries, SMEs contribute 70 percent to the GDP and 95 percent to driving employment.
Accurate Record Keeping
Speaking on mitigating future losses, Yusuf urged SMEs to adopt enterprise risk management framework to mitigate risk, adding that, they should improve on record keeping even as he lamented that SMEs do not have accurate records to identify the risk imposed on their businesses and this is affecting businesses especially in risk management.
Corporate Governance
He, however, urged MSMEs to improve on their corporate governance culture to improve growth across the sector through investment in technology as the lever for economic growth. To him, “technology is the key driver, we are living in a digital age and SME should adopt technological roles to drive growth across the different branches of their businesses.”
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