FG Inaugurates MDA Focal Group on Implementation of New MSME Policy

James Emejo

Following the recent approval by the federal government of the reviewed National Policy on MSMEs (2021-2025), the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Mariam Katagum, has inaugurated the MDA Focal Persons Group in the Implementation of the policy.
The federal government had okayed the new policy on MSMEs which among other things reclassified small businesses based on turnover rather than their assets.
The minister said the inauguration marked a significant turning point in the implementation process of the policy which was developed by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
She said with the approval of the 2nd revised policy by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on March 17, 2021, SMEDAN had sought the assistance of the Investment Climate Reform (ICR) Facility to initiate a coordination mechanism and also put in place a monitoring and evaluation system for effective tracking of the various MDA-specific actions.
Katagum, at the inauguration of the MDA Focal Persons Group, noted that the NMSME framework remained “very ambitious and requires multi-stakeholder partnership in implementing some of the recommendations”.
She said the mechanism seeks to ensure that the various activities of the ministries, departments and agencies of government (MDAs) that border on the sub-sector are properly coordinated and reported.
The minister said, “The involvement of strategic MDAs and BMOs in developing sector-specific action plans and nomination of focal persons will certainly increase the pace of activities that will drive the development of the NMSME sub-sector.”
She explained that the entire focus of the policy is to create a platform or framework to collaboratively attend to some of the basic challenges of the NMSMEs adding that this was why the policy is focused on finance, skills development, marketing, and technology, research and development among others.
She also said towards ensuring that the policy is implemented to a reasonable level between now and 2025 when it will be due for another review, a high-level monitoring and evaluation team comprising of public, private and civil society interests would also be inaugurated, stressing that this will hopefully measure the level of implementation while the feedback will form a major point of discussion at both the Technical Implementation Committee and at the National Council.
Also speaking at the occasion, the acting Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr. Olawale Fasanya, said the contributions of the focal persons group would further reinforce their institutional commitments to working towards the realization of the policy objectives.
assembled represent.