The Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN) Dr Umaru Dikko Radda has said that the agency has been constrained by dwindling statutory allocations which he said is adversely affecting the capacity of the agency to reach out and execute its mandate in the country.
Dr Radda stated this in Kaduna in his address delivered at the strategic management retreat held for senior officers of the agency.
He disclosed that from available statistics, Nigeria and New Zealand SMEs have the highest contribution to employment but stressed that Nigerian SMEs has the lowest contribution to GDP while Brazilian SMEs has the highest contribution to GDP because the agency is well funded.
“While SEBRAE, our counterpart in Brazil gets $1.8 billion subvention yearly , SMEDAN allocation in 2014 and 2015 was a paltry $20.1 million. While SBA (our counterpart in USA) oversees 20 million SMES, SMEDAN oversees about 37 million MSMEs. Ironically, SBA’s Subvention in 2016 is $701.3 million which is more than the budget of SMEDAN since inception in 2003.”
He stressed therefore that the retreat was basically among others to provide a platform for the review of the agency’s operations and strategically chart the way forward.
“The retreat is further aimed at aligning the operations of the agency to the fundamental goal of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government which is revamping the productive and service sectors of the Nigerian economy with a view to diversification from the oil sector and creating mass job opportunities.
Source:Leadership
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