X-raying Governor Radda’s MSMEs Initiative

The future is apparently bright for business owners in Katsina State following the pronouncement by the state government to establish a Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Ministry. Francis Sardauna writes

In Nigeria, the Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) have not been given proper policy and funding support over the years despite their productive potential in the sustained drive by successful governments in the country.

But in Katsina, the future is apparently bright for the sector because Governor Dikko Radda, has concluded plans to establish a ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the state as part of his economic recovery and diversification policy drive.

Radda, who announced this in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed, to commemorate the 2023 World MSME Day, said the proposed Ministry would be under his supervision seemingly to ensure efficient and effective service delivery.

Recognising the critical roles of MSMEs to economic growth and employment creation, the governor vowed to use the Small and Medium Development Agency’s (SMEDAN) template for the implementation of the ministry’s activities and employ professionals to man its affairs.

The former director-general of SMEDAN said: “The MSMEs Ministry we are planning to establish will be under my personal watch. I will ensure it gets the necessary supervision it needs administratively.

“The template I used in repositioning SMEDAN, between 2016 and 2022, when I was the agency’s director general, will be adopted for our proposed Ministry. I will also employ professionals to man its affairs”.

While recalling with fond nostalgia how he and other management staff of SMEDAN unveiled and implemented several reform policies, Governor Radda re-emphasised that the MSMEs Ministry would help to nurture, grow and ensure the survival of businesses with little capital in the state.

With the absence of an enabling environment for MSMEs to thrive in the country, Radda’s proposal for the establishment of the ministry is considered by business experts as a golden opportunity for small business ventures with little capital to prosper in the state.

The proposed ministry, if established, will further help the micro, small and medium enterprises grow within value chains, optimise their use of resources and strengthen capacity.

Governor Radda’s holistic approach for MSMEs will also boost sustainability and the scale of results, thereby allowing business owners to expand their customer base, increase their revenue and reach higher levels of production.

The initiative will also create opportunities for entrepreneurs, particularly women, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable groups, through value chain and MSME development, including efforts to: strengthen market systems to improve their overall efficiency, effectiveness, and equitability.

Support MSMEs to increase their business competitiveness by increasing productivity, revenue, profit and/or reducing costs and enhance access to finance for MSMEs, support entrepreneurial training programmes and improve access to decision making skills among women entrepreneurs in the state.

Interestingly, the proposed ministry, among other initiatives, are carefully designed and outlined in Radda’s ‘Building Your Future Strategic Policy’ document which has been reviewed by many professionals from different fields of human endeavours.

The policy blueprint has been a dynamic and a guiding document that is being implemented by Governor Radda in line with the priorities and financial capacity of the state.

Nonetheless, encomiums from business experts had greeted Radda’s proposal for the establishment of the first-of-its-kind MSMEs Ministry in the state. Unarguably because of the role of the sector in tackling unemployment and boosting local economies.

One of the business experts, Alhaji Salisu Mamman, described the initiative as a right step in the right direction that will resuscitate the comatose nature of micro, small and medium enterprises and enhance the state’s revenue generation.

As the former DG of SMEDAN, he said, Radda has prerequisite experience and background to create and sustain the micro, small and medium enterprises Ministry “which will serve the most important segment of the private sector, which constitute 60 to 65 per cent of the Nigerian economy”.

The former chairman of the Katsina State Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, further described MSMES as the engine-room of economic growth, development and prosperity of any given society.

Mamman, who is also an accomplished entrepreneur, philanthropist and a household name in Katsina, said: “I am glad that His Excellency is taking a bull by the horns. It’s commendable and a right step to economic growth and development”.

“I know that the micro, small and medium scale enterprises across Northern Nigeria, especially in Katsina state, constitute 90 per cent of the informal sector. So, one of the cardinal objectives of the ministry when it comes into being, is to see how it can formalise this segment into a formal sector.

The astute entrepreneur added that using SMEDAN’s template to implement the ministry’s activities would ensure its sustainability “there is no template to leverage on better than the one that was used to catapult the operations of SMEDAN right from its own set”.

Similarly, a business tycoon in the state who craved anonymity, said Governor Radda has set a standard for other governors, especially those in the northern region of the country, to emulate for the betterment of the region’s economy.

According to the source, “Government must also build the capacity of entrepreneurs by providing capacity building support services focused on training entrepreneurs on relevant skills”.

Also, the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) while describing the governor’s plan to establish the Ministry of micro, small and medium scale enterprises as a welcome development, however, said more need to be done to make it functional.

The state Chairman of the CSOs, Mr. Abdulrahman Abdullahi, said the governor should revamp all moribund cottage industries and fish ponds created by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua across Katsina when he was the Governor of the state.

He explained that the ministry also needs to focus its attention on tapping and harnessing employment opportunities in agriculture and the state’s mineral resources.

He said: “In addition to the existing skill acquisition centres in the state, the governor should consider reviving the moribund cottage industries in the state, fish farming ponds created by Yar’Adua administration, Songhai Initiative and other entrepreneurial initiatives for the Ministry to be able to deliver its mandate”.

For Radda, supporting small businesses with new innovations and ensuring government policies take advantage of MSMEs during implementation and boosting local economies, remains his administration’s collective growth and approach for community development.

However, as the challenges of unemployment and worsening poverty levels in global economies continue to accentuate on a yearly basis, Governor Radda needs to speed up actions for the immediate establishment of the MSMEs Ministry in the state.

The formalisation of the micro, small and medium enterprises will bring the MSMEs to the state’s tax net, thereby boosting the revenue generation profile of the government.

A credit guarantee system for MSMEs should also be initiated and tax incentives through tax reduction and income tax waivers be explored to encourage the growth of more MSMEs.

For example the tax incentives can be tied to the number of jobs created and the amount of exports achieved. As a key driver of economic prosperity and employment creation, the MSMEs ministry should be carefully monitored and spearheaded by business experts.