Social Market Approach To Drive Policy Implementation For MSMEs – Ezekwesili

Economic adviser and convener of FixPolitics, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili has said social market approach is needed to drive policy implementation for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, (MSMEs) noting that, this will unlock growth and potential for SMEs and private corporations in the country.

Ezekwesili gave the assertion while speaking on the sidelines of the 5th Anniversary of the Caladium Lagos SME Boot Camp organised in partnership with fedhaGap.

According to her, SMEs are major operators within the economy which contributes 96 per cent of total businesses in the country and 50 per cent to Gross domestic product (GDP).

She posited that 73 per cent of MSMEs are sole proprietorship while, 14 per cent are private limited companies and 13 per cent are cooperatives, partnerships among others.

Ezekwesili, however, urged the government to remove barriers surrounding the ease of doing business for small and medium scale companies noting that this would drive market growth, increase productivity and boost trade expansion.

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She said, government needs to prioritise macroeconomic programmes that would re-balance the Nigerian economy for possible growth and sustainability, adding that, this would greatly reposition the economy and place it on the path of growth.

This is just as she stated that government needs to tackle the present realities in the economy such as interest rate, inflationary trends, forex constraints, energy crisis, logistics hurdles and commodity pricing.

Ezekwesili hinted that the  macroeconomic consolidation programme she proposed would create a tough economic policy measures that would bring some level of hardship, which would last for a short period of time.

To her, “you need macro-economic stability which means less inflation, less variability in exchange rate, the type of challenges we have with access to foreign exchange rate.

“There are many sectors that need serious reforms in order to enable them function and create the impetus for economic activities within them. Whether you are talking about health, education, power, aviation, tourism and agriculture, they need structural reforms.”

Also speaking at the Caladium Lagos SME Boot Camp, the convener, Ayo Bankole-Akintujoye, said the SMEs boot camp was part of efforts to spring up and support the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises in the country to be able to scale and acquire business management skills that would make them more sustainable.