UNIDO rep advises Nigeria to use SMEs to transform economy

UNIDO representative in Nigeria, Masayoshi Matsushita, gave the advice in Kaduna at a capacity development workshop on "The Structure, Functions and Development Strategies," jointly organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and UNIDO.

Matsushita said Japan’s economy was mainly driven by SMEs, which accounted for 97 percent, "as a result of the major attention given to the sector by the Ministry of Economic Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan."

He explained that the SMEs received special attention because of their ability to create jobs for the economy.

Matsushita used Japan’s METI as a model to be adopted by Nigeria’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry toward achieving the Vision 2020 agenda.

According to him, SMEs in Japan consisted of organisations with less than 100 people and less than one million dollars share capital.

The envoy declared: "Toyota, a multinationalauto company, does not produce any auto part, but mainly assembles them from its chain of sub-contracting companies that produce the components.

"There are hundreds of people involved in the manufacturing of just one vehicle. That is why manufacturing is important in job creation.’’

Alfred Durowaiye, director, Policy, Standards, Research and Statistics, delivered a paper on "An Overview of the Structure and Function of the Nigerian Ministry of Commerce and Industry."

He said the major challenge of the ministry was inadequate finance.

Durowaiye also identified inconsistency in government policy and the lack of adequate support for the real sector.

The inconsistent policy, he noted, includes "the merger and de-merger of the erstwhile ministries of commerce and Industry, that has taken place about three times".

He stated that the role of the new ministry in propelling the country to join the 20 most developed economies by 2020 was not backed by any concrete policy thrust.

Other challenges identified were inadequate training and exposure of staff to global best practices in the discharge of their duties, as well as inadequate working materials and poor working environment.