Nigeria business environment is hostile, anti-SMEs – Ikenna Nwosu
By Felicia Nwosu
Ikenna Nwosu, CEO, Moorgate Ltd, an investment advisory firm, has lamented the hostile business environment and anti-SMEs, regulations under which Nigerian SMEs operate saying this is the bane of Nigeria’s economic development. According to him, SMEs have positioned themselves to be strong players in business operations and scaling up the value chain.
Dr. Nwosu, one of the panelists during the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria Marketing Conference held in Lagos, charged private sectors to raise their voices against the hostility of SMEs to change the narrative. He called for more synergy and collaborations between national policy-makers and SMEs in order to have positive joint decisions in meeting the exact needs of the SMEs, as no one shaves a man’s hair in his absence.
In his words: “Developing policies without collaborative engagement of the stakeholders is not an effective means of making policies. Policies must be done in the process of dialogue to. Public sectors should raise a voice to make compliance to policies easier and more resourceful.”
Dr. Nwosu also noted that Nigeria is a country of entrepreneurs, the driver of the economic growth of the world, and therefore, business should be done without all these bottlenecks to hinder growth. He urged the government to create an enabling environment for business to thrive and ensure that the mantra of the ease of doing business is indeed easy, and not just lip-service.
He urged various stakeholders such as the Industrial Training Fund to create a curriculum that will make business operations for SMEs flourish more. He also canvassed that the requirement from SMEs should not be a herculean task to meet up with. He called on CBN to create easy access to finance with no interest rate, or payment of interest after two years, while advising the Inland Revenue Board to remove all unnecessary payments off the shoulders of the SMEs. He also called for more sensitisation and awareness on how to grow business.
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