By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof Yemi Osibajo, will on Tuesday be in Ibadan for the Oyo State Edition of the national Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Clinic and town hall meeting with the youth.
Commissioner for Trade, Industry, Investment and Cooperatives, Princess Taibat Adeyemi-Agaba, disclosed at the weekend that the Vice President will inspect the MSMEs booth on Tuesday and also intimate the stakeholders on the efforts of Federal as well as the State Governments towards strengthening SMEs in the state and the country at large.
The MSMEs Clinic organized by the Office of the Vice President in collaboration with the Oyo State government will start on Monday June 25, 2018 at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Oyo State by 10am daily with an exhibition where locally made products and enterprise will be exhibited for inspection by the state governor, Mr Abiola Ajimobi, and an interactive session between the federal government agencies and members of MSMEs
Princess Adeyemi-Agaba said Mr Osibajo will also address youths in the state during a town hall meeting at the Prof Theophilus Ogunlesi Hall, Opposite UCH Main Gate by 3pm on Tuesday.
She stated that federal and state government officials, members of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Manufacturers Association on Nigeria (MAN), Chambers of Commerce, Organised Private Sector, Informal Sector, beneficiaries of FG Social Investment Programmes and other stakeholders are expected to be part of the MSMEs Clinic while youth across the state will be the guests of the Vice President at the Town Hall meeting.
Princess Adeyemi-Agaba noted that the MSMEs Clinic is geared towards driving the economy out of recession and placing it on a sound and sustainable path, saying that the plan is designed to assist the 36,994,587 micro enterprises recognized by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Small Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on ease of doing business.
She explained that the Project is in partnership with various Regulatory Federal Government Agencies whose operations are critical to the activities and survival of MSMEs doing business in the Country, stressing “It is a collaborative effort with respective State Governments where conducive atmospheres are being created for all critical stakeholders to interact with each other with a view to getting feedback for resolving problems militating against the growth and sustainability of MSME space in Nigeria.
“This program is one of the socio-economic interventions of the Federal Government domiciled in the Office of the Vice President to assist businesses to thrive in Nigeria. Others being; N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer, Home Grown School Feeding Programme and Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP),” Princess Adeyemi-Agaba said.
The Commissioner said that the program is to create enabling environments for critical stakeholders to interact with each other to enable Federal Government Agencies proffer on the spot solutions where possible to problems affecting MSMEs.
She said that the Oyo State Government has been strengthening MSME’s scheme in the State with the strategic partnership with Bank of Industry in instituting a 1 billion naira MSME Development funding Scheme for on-lending to manufacturing related MSME in the State at 5% annual interest rate.
Princess Adeyemi-Agaba stressed that 200 projects have been supported under the scheme in the sum of N800 million, noting that a total of 5000 direct jobs have been generated under the scheme throughout Oyo State.
Adedapo Adesanya