With Nigeria’s unemployment rate currently estimated at 33 per cent, the situation may get worse with the influx of foreigners working in the skilled and unskilled labour sector of the economy.
An investigation by Daily Trust revealed that the majority of the trade skills such as plumbing, vulcanizing, electrical-electronics, welding, building construction, tiling, interior décor, to mention just a few, are been dominated by foreigners from neighbouring African countries and beyond, no thanks to the paucity of local artisans.
Against the backdrop of the entrepreneur being the prime cause of economic development in every nation, a palpable and consistent decline in technical apprenticeship practice and artisanal products and services in Nigerian cities and suburbs constitutes a bad signal for socio-economic development.
Artisans are ageing and younger people are not taking their places. This situation has generated the fear and concern that, in the next two decades, artisans might disappear almost completely from the development landscape of Nigeria.
Artisans are the driving force of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), a critical sub-sector in the Nigerian economy.
They collectively account for a majority of the enterprises in Nigeria and also account for the highest number of jobs created in the economy.
The most recent national MSMEs survey of 2017 revealed that there are 41,543,028 MSMEs, employing 59,647,954 (76.5% of labour force) and contributing 49.78% and 7.64% to nominal GDP and exports respectively.
These staggering statistics cannot be ignored in any serious economy. Properly harnessed, MSMEs can trigger an entrepreneurial revolution in Industry, Agriculture and Commerce in Nigeria.
According to the World Bank, MSMEs represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. Formal SMEs contribute up to 40% of national income (GDP) in emerging economies.
The latest Survey indicates Nigeria’s SMEs contribute nearly 50% of the country’s GDP and account for over 80% of employment in the country.
No doubt, the sector is pivotal to Nigeria’s growth including reducing poverty levels. However, the sector continues to be weighed down with challenges that ultimately impact the nation’s growth.
In recent times, the start-up ecosystem has received a lot of attention globally for its role as an economic catalyst. A lot of emphases have been put on the MSMEs segment leading to the creation of departments that have now become part of the strategic focus of financial institutions, multilateral agencies and economic planners.
Back home, the challenge however has been how to properly stimulate the potentials of the MSMEs to contribute more to the Nigerian economy.
Speaking at the official flag-off of NBSDI, Director-General of SMEDAN, Dikko, Umaru Radda said, It is in the bid to support the MSMEs in a most practical way, that the agency developed the initiative.
It is a programme designed to provide entrepreneurship skills, vocational skills and provision of empowerment materials (equipment) to fill the capacity gap of the youths.
Radda said: “NBSDI enhances youth engagement in productive ventures, thereby ensuring they earn income through filling the artisanal gap in Nigeria.
“The initiative is designed to ensure that more professional services will be provided by local and well trained young artisans leading to a reduction in job losses to immigrants from neighbouring countries.
“It seeks to pursue a drastic reduction in dependency poverty as most of them out of school youths who still rely on stipends from parents is empowered to become self-reliant.
The programme is being implemented in all the states of the federation and FCT where a total of 5,365 entrepreneurs will be impacted with entrepreneurship skills, vocational skills and empowerment materials at the rate of 145 entrepreneurs per State and FCT.
The programme commenced simultaneously in all the states within the North West geo-political zone of the country. Sokoto State was chosen specifically for the official opening ceremony considering the strategic importance of the State as the seat of the Caliphate and a foremost supporter of MSMEs in this zone.
At the end of the programme, the expected outcome will include improved business management practice; improved service provision by trained artisans; increased access to finance, equipment and other business resource as well as increase the number of formalized artisanal businesses.
Others are improved market support services by MDAs and responsible stakeholders to MSMEs. Improved satisfaction level of customers of artisans through improved service delivery and Increased patronage of Nigerian artisans.
Beneficiaries React
In their separate reactions, some of the beneficiaries commended the federal government for the programme geared towards capacity building, skills acquisition, financial empowerment and job creation.
Rachael Paul who spoke on behalf of North Central Nigeria beneficiaries commended the federal government through SMEDAN for introducing the programme.
Paul said: “Though the government has graciously trained us and has given us drier / pedicure machines, I want to admonish that the second phase of the programme should be that government provides the various beneficiaries with the working capital for them to begin the journey towards their financial freedom.”
Similarly, Fatimah Yarima who spoke on behalf of North East beneficiaries said, “It is a thing of joy to have benefited from such a skill training from the federal government with a gift of Sewing Machine to hundreds of people in the zone.
“However, I implore SMEDAN to help with more Sewing Machines and capital to begin the business in earnest” emphasizing that “forming a cluster to collect a shop is not enough rather, they equally need working capital to enable them to buy materials needed for the smooth take-off of the business.
From South-West, Onyia Regina and Onucha Loveth commended SMEDAN for the initiative which saw them having mixer machines for milk pal, drier machines and sewing machines for hundred of beneficiaries in the area
To Sholakpa Oshidele and Bola Afolabi who spoke on behalf of South-West people, they said, “Like Oliver Twist, we need more of such programme until we are fully empowered financially and otherwise.
From South-South, Victoria J. Eze called on the federal government to consider giving the beneficiaries grant or loan of N500,000 to N1,000,000 each to ensure the realization of the programme.
