Akinwuntan: Lack of Adequate Infrastructure, Corruption Still a Challenge to SME Devt in Nigeria

Gilbert Ekugbe

The former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Akinwuntan, has stated that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are still being challenged by lack of basic infrastructure facilities that are vital for their competitiveness and their ability to create wealth and job opportunities for the nation’s teeming unemployed youths.

He stated this on the sidelines of Catholic Brothers United’s (CBU’s) 20th annual lecture and 29th anniversary ceremony tagged “Entrepreneurship drive: A tool for mitigating unemployment for national growth” in Lagos.

According to him, entrepreneurship is key to economic growth and development particularly for a country like Nigeria whose unemployment rate is about 33 per cent and a poverty level close to 60 per cent.

He, however, called on stakeholders, government institutions and the citizenry at large to look inwards to seek ways of reigniting the entrepreneurship spirit that Nigeria has always had.
He also stated that corruption has hit deeply into the nation’s value system, stating the urgent need for the governments across all levels and citizens to find ways to stamp out corruption in the country.

“We cannot talk of entrepreneurship without talking of SMEs and it is important that as a nation, we rediscover integrity and knowing that the talent exist in Nigeria. The framework needs to be there for us to truly leverage on entrepreneurship to reduce unemployment and poverty,” he urged.

He pointed out that the government has a responsibility of providing infrastructure especially power because a lot of small businesses cannot afford powering their businesses with alternative power, stressing that regular power and basic infrastructure is vital for SMEs to thrive.

“It is important that people can move their goods. It is also important that we totally eradicate corruption in our society because it is a real problem for SMEs. It is actually important that we use things produced locally, we can focus internally by reducing importation and focus on export to help our entrepreneurs to grow a lot more,” he recommended.
He said according to Ban ki-moon former UN Secretary General, “Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the global economy, stressing that they are the source of most new jobs and are a key driver of economic growth.
He pointed out that the success of SMEs is critical to achieving sustainable development
and reducing poverty worldwide.

“With a population of over 220 million and a GDP of about USD$ 477.39 billion as at 2022, Nigeria is both Africa’s most populous country and largest economy. Notwithstanding these, Nigeria currently faces significant economic challenges including a low GDP per capita in 2022 of USD$ 2,184, high unemployment at 33 per cent and one of the highest poverty rates globally with about 63 per cent of persons living within Nigeria considered to be multi-dimensionally poor

“We indeed must ask ourselves how a nation that is well endowed with abundant human and natural resources and huge market opportunities found itself in this position. Entrepreneurship provides a unique opportunity for us to mitigate the scourge of unemployment and poverty is empirically proven when we consider the role of
entrepreneurship in leading economies such as the US, China, Japan, Germany, India which are
the top 5 countries by GDP globally,” he stressed.

Also speaking, the Vice president, Catholic Brother United, Kelechi Ndubisi, said the annual lecture is basically sensitising its immediate environment towards entrepreneurship, maintaining that the purpose is to sensitise Nigerians at large on the need to channel energy, efforts and resources towards entrepreneurship as a way to solving society’s problems one of which is unemployment.