AN OPEN LETTER TO VICE PRESIDENT PROF. OSINBAJO
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR SPEECH TO SMEDAN
by
Kayode Fakinlede Ph.D
Sir,
It is a breadth of fresh air to have someone in the high echelons of government who appreciates the value of the small and medium enterprises in the development of the economy. In your address to members of SMEDAN recently, you rightly hit the nail on the head when you declared thus:
"When people are able to do things for themselves, that is when we can say we are developed. No country develops without vibrant small and medium enterprises. It is the base for commerce and industry. We need to scale up. We must design a strategy that allows us to create an impact with the people. This is what the big nations of the world are doing. Naturally, Nigerians have commercial inclinations."
This goes to show that in spite of all the sound and fury about industrialization, it is the SME's that are responsible for much of the employment in this country, or for that matter, in most developed countries. And really, if Nigeria is going to comprehensively address the problem of employment, it must be through the strengthening of the SME's.
You also went on to note that technology start-ups should be encouraged by SMEDAN.
Congratulations sir!!!
In spite of my agreement with the totality of your thesis, it is this latter issue about technology start-ups that I wish to address. This issue itself cannot be divorced from the SME's as it is only a subset of the SME's. However, this is the main stepping stone to industrial development and technological revolution in all developed nations of the world. In spite of all the billions of naira that the government has spent or may wish to spend on industrialization, if there are no small scale technology companies enveloping the terrain of the country, our attempts at industrial revolution and the employment opportunities derivable from it will be futile. I am talking about small, privately owned companies that specialize in making thousands of products ranging from bicycle parts to car parts; from health products to medical devices; etc.
Now sir, you mentioned as a caveat, that "the problem is the absence of capacity building. People have ideas, but cannot execute these ideas, some are even lacking in bookkeeping." This is where I wish to demur since, at the beginning of that very paragraph, you said it all when you were quoted as saying that, "Naturally, Nigerians have commercial inclinations." These inclinations are demonstrated everyday in their bid to build capacity through the tens of thousands of profit oriented training organizations littering the landscape. I think sir, that you or your government should not worry about capacity building. We will build that by ourselves.
The major issue being faced by SME's, particularly the technology start-ups, in this country is funding or the way to go about funding a technologically oriented idea. You are probably aware of the intense bureaucratic imbroglio one faces trying to get funds to set up any business in our country. In order to get the government on a good path to industrial development, there has to be a blueprint of how the government will provide the enabling environment for technologically oriented businesses.
The mechanism for funding small-scale industries in this country is absolutely defective, being completely wobbled by bureaucracy and inefficiency. The Bank of Industry, an avenue for making funds available for small scale industries is a form filing, time-wasting, joke. Really, this establishment is a quasi-ministry given some sweet-sounding name of an NGO. In this bank, a person could easily spend upwards of two to three years applying for a loan. And even when you have been approved for a loan, there is no guarantee that the money will be forthcoming. In some instances, a person can actually lose a deposit running to some hundreds of thousands without a prospect of refund. In my neck of the woods, Ondo State, this bank may even serve as way to frustrate would-be entrepreneurs in achieving his dreams.
Sir, it is imperative that some means need to be found for would-be entrepreneurs to access government within a reasonable time period. An industrialist, or would be industrialist, does not have the luxury of waiting two to three years for a loan to be approved and spending hundreds of thousands of Naira in the process. This is very, very important if the economy is to be improved, wealth created, and employment opportunities advanced.
Sir, a means has to put in place such that commercial banks, upon some satisfaction of some requirement are mandated to give government backed loans to would-be entrepreneurs. Anyone having a house should be able to access a government-backed loan from a commercial bank within a period of a month after submitting the legal proof of ownership of his house and filing relevant documents.
The hues and cries over Nigerians being corrupt, and their unwillingness to pay back loans is probably due to the corruptible tendencies of the bank officials themselves, particularly the government banks; or their unwillingness to go after their own debtors due to reasons best known by them.
Sir, again I congratulate you on an issue that can definitely serve as a catalyst for our national emergence as a technological giant in the world.
FAKINLEDE
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