As Nigeria”s Micro ,Small and Medium ( Enterprises ) MSMEs are grappling with many challenges and products rejection outside the country, the Standard Organisation of Nigeria’ (SON) had a brainstorm session with them to find a way out of the challenges.
Speaking at the venue of the event -Manufacturers Association of Nigeria ( MAN)’s House, Lagos, the Director General of the SON, Farouk Salim, noted that no country can develop having only big companies.
He said recent research showed that the country has about 40 million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ( MSMEs) and Small and Medium Enterprises ( SMEs)…
He reasoned that if each of these MSMEs and SMEs employ just three workers alone, a total of about 180 million jobs would be provided.
The SON boss further added that if the country can provide 180 million jobs, most of the begging in our streets and banditry plaguing the country would have reduced to the barest level.
Salim said many economically developed countries of today like China, Tiwan, Japan and others in the 50s to the early 70s, were not where they are today.
He recalled that many then saw their products as substandard, but today they have developed their products to become globally compititive.
“In the 60s and the 70s, we had Ijebu products, Aba products, Tawain products, China products, Indian products that many of us were saying were substandard.
” With hardwork and collaboration, today China is number two economy in the world. Most of us here in this hall have one 1Phone or the others. Most of them are produced in China,” he stressed.
The event with the theme; “Products Competitiveness Driving Home-Grown Economy Via Standardization” drawn participants from many MSMEs and SMEs Associations nationwide…
Including; Block Makers Association, National Association of Small Scale Industrialists ( NASSI), National Association of Women Industrialists, Association of Women Businesses, Association of Small Business Owners and many others.
Responding to questions from the participants, the SON boss said he was sorry for the inability of the head of the SMEs Desk and her team to be present in the event.
He promised to collaborate with the MSMEs stakeholders who requested for ” MSNEs hub” to assist the MSMEs to produce goods that will be accepted outside Nigeria.
Salim expressed regrets that the inability of Nigerian farmers to asked for the global standards led to rejection of their yam produce exported some years ago due to poor standard, poor packaging and poor chemical usage.
He promised that his agency was prepared to work with the MSMEs to enhanced standardization and grow their businesses.
Salim pleaded with the participants to adhere to standards set by his agency if the country hope to benefit from African Continental Free Trade Agreement ( AfCFTA), as the products from the entire continent are free to move to every country.
He added that any products that fails to embrace standard will not be able to go to other markets outside Nigeria.
“As we are today, any producer that fails to embrace product competitiveness, his or her products will not grow beyond the local market.
There is a little the government can do to stop products coming from outside the country with the take off of AfCFTA.
“Our Naira will continue to fall if we continue to import and fail to export our products. It is left to us to buy the products produce in Nigeria with our Naira, than exchanging our Naira with huge dollars just for us to import products our MSMEs and SMEs can produce here locally,” he stressed.
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