The Federal Government has said that it was working at using the various Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to move more Nigerians out of poverty threshold, especially in the wake of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Mr. Dasuki Arabi, said this on Wednesday in Abuja at a one-day Strategic Seminar with Leaders of MSMES Organizations to identify service delivery challenges in MSMES interventions.
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“It has become imperative to bring together relevant stakeholders to focus on the critical and urgent task of getting millions of Nigerians out of the poverty circle,” he said.
Declaring open the meeting, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Boss Mustapha, said while citizens, rightly, expect Governments to always provide basic services, the people also expect governments to take action to promote national prosperity and quality of their lives.
“It is pertinent to state that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration has since inception introduced several intervention programmes with the cardinal objective to lift 100m Citizens out of poverty in the next 10 years.”
The Director, Development Finance Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Yusuf Yila, who quoted the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, said Nigeria has over 37.07 million MSMEs and they account for more than 84 per cent of total jobs in the country and also account for about 48.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as well as about 7.27% of goods and services export.
