The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) is in process of establishing the SMEDAN Micro Finance Bank. This strategic move was announced by the According to SMEDAN Director-General, Mr. Olawale Fasanya who assumed office in June.
Fasanya said that launching the SMEDAN Micro-Finance Bank is aimed at “addressing the peculiar challenges of MSMEs with regards to access to funds. The Agency had in the time past advocated for a special funding window for MSMEs but this has not been achieved even with the creation of some development banks. Consequently, we are partnering with some BMOs as investors for the seamless take-off of the Bank”.
The DG decried the fact that despite having well over 39 million enterprises in the sub-sector, providing a total of over 61 million employments and about 49% of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Nigeria, according to the latest report of the SMEDAN/NBS National Survey of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), this all-important sub-sector is still encumbered with several challenges which the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia have further worsened.
Fasanya also observed that the major challenges of MSMEs usually border on access to finance, market, equipment, information, technical and entrepreneurial skills and workspace and this was the main basis for the establishment of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) vide the SMIDAN Act in 2003.
Fasanya said SMEDAN has obtained virtually all regulatory approvals and is in the process of rolling out key banking services to MSMEs before the end of 2022. He promised that SMEDAN Micro-finance Bank will be a solid bank that will deliver key financial and banking services to boost the operations of multiple enterprises in its sector and ultimately boost employment, productivity as well as the GDP of the country.
Meanwhile, to further boost the sector He is targeting to re-purpose the 23 Industrial Development Centres (IDCs) spread across the country into affordable workspaces for MSMEs located within the precinct of the IDCs”. This is because it has been observed that “another major challenge that has stalled most start-ups and hindered their growth of existing enterprises is the poor access to functional workspace.”
Mr. Olawale Fasanya, who is a pioneer staff of SMEDAN is the first Director-General to be appointed from the ranks of the Agency. He said that “The import of this is that expectations from Stakeholders are expectedly and justifiably high to help address the problems of MSMEs in Nigeria. Having worked very closely with all the past Director-Generals, I owe it a duty to significantly build on the foundations laid by my predecessors so as to cause a positive shift in the MSMEs development narratives in Nigeria. He promised to engage more with key stakeholders and the Nigerian public to enable “share my vision for this very important but highly endangered sector of Nigeria’s economy”
He promised to do his best to ensure that SMEDAN meets the desired targets and expectations.
