Prof. Beloved Onoh, Director, Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Eungu State University of Technology, says the problem of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria is the lack of planning and research.
Onoh said this in Abuja at the 2018 Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development Summit with the theme, “Re-engineering and Empowering the MSMEs for Enhanced Productivity, Competitiveness and Profitability’’.
He said other problems were inconsistent government policies and their non-implementation, inadequate power supply as well as inefficient management capacity.
He said while Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had done a lot to promote MSMEs, the lack of access to funds had been a major challenge for small business owners.
Onoh said the ease of doing business in the country though said to be good on paper, the reality was different.
“The country does not have a valid data to measure process in its activities so we wait for international agencies to do that and this is wrong,’’ he said.
Onoh said if the youth were given the right training with modern technology they would do better in their businesses.
He advised that people doing business should learn how to keep records of their activities to achieve better results.
Onoh said empowerment was not just giving funds but included increased degrees of autonomy and self-determination in people to enable them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way.
“Youth empowerment is different from youth development.
“Economic empowerment include the provision of enabling environment, offering financial assistance, offering free training and easy access to soft loans,’’ he said.
According to him, most of the empowerment programmes in the country are hijacked as a result of which it has been difficult to achieve set goals.
Mrs Gladys Agwai, Founder and CEO of Ignite Within and a Motivational Speaker said people should learn to translate values into action.
“The greatest leadership challenge is ability to determine the level of effectiveness and potential,’’ Agwai said.
She said a leader should be trusted and that business leaders must be accountable for their activities.
