MSMEs: Osinbajo charges CAC, FIRS, NAFDAC, others to support Nigerians’ entrepreneurial efforts

*Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has urged the relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to support the efforts of Nigerians engaging in different enterprises by creating a conducive and enabling business environment for them to succeed

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

Nigeria’s Vice-President (Prof.) Yemi Osinbajo has called on regulatory authorities to ensure they facilitate and make it easier for Nigerian entrepreneurs to thrive.

ConsumerConnect reports Vice-President Osinbajo urged the relevant Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to support the “hustle” of Nigerians engaged in different enterprises by creating a conducive and enabling business environment.

Participants in a training session at a CBN Entrepreneurship Development Centre

Mr. Laolu Akande, Spokesman to Prof. Osinbajo, in a statement Monday, December 13, 2021, said the Vice-President spoke at the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Clinics Stakeholders’ Review Meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Akande said the meeting was attended by heads and representatives of agencies including Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Bank of Industry (BOI) and Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM).

The presidential aide noted the Heads of Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) among others were in attendance.

Agricultural produce in Nigeria

The statement quoted the VP as saying that “everybody knows that Nigerians are enterprising; practically every Nigerian has some kind of business, as they say, some hustle or some other things that they are doing.

“People need the right environment and that is what our role is, to ensure that we understand that it is to facilitate and make it easier, not to become a stumbling block or a tollgate.”

Osinbajo stated: “This is a country where people want and desire to work; the constraints are what we have to address; this would be dealt with by human beings and not spirits.

“Our creativity and innovation must be first and foremost to remove the obstacles, that is what will solve Nigeria’s problems, implementation of the grand policies that we have and it depends on us.”

According to the Vice-President some young Nigerians three years to get registration numbers for their businesses.

He said he was told that in some other close African countries, the same registration takes six weeks.

Osinbajo further said: “If you get food and drugs administration registration anywhere else, you can be in a Nigerian supermarket… and they come and compete with our own people here.

“This is happening in every respect, even with exports.”

In her remarks,  Amb. Mariam Katagun, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, expressed her appreciation to the vice president for his leadership role.

The Minister commended the stakeholders and state governors for their collaboration and cooperation in holding MSME Clinics.

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