The Managing Director and CEO of Heritage Bank Plc, Ifie Sekibo has assured that he is committed to supporting the growth of MSMEs in the Niger Delta with the intention being to improve youth participation in wealth creation, enable economic development beyond the current level, and ultimately curb the over-dependency on crude oil.
He gave the assurance on Saturday in Port Harcourt during the maiden edition of the Niger Delta Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Summit under the theme “Stimulating MSME’s Growth Beyond Oil” an event which was held at the Aztech Event Centre, Port Harcourt in Rivers State.
While decrying Nigeria’s over-dependence on crude oil as a major setback to inclusive growth, Sekibo called for urgent economic diversification saying “whether it’s oil in Nigeria and Angola, coffee in Uganda or copper in Zambia, single-commodity domination of an economy can end up shackling growth”.
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He went further to say “recent studies have shown how susceptible African countries are to economic shocks and fluctuations in currencies and commodity prices. Some are more vulnerable than others because their economies are dependent on the export of one or just a few commodities or primary products. When there is a downturn in commodity prices, mono-product economies such as Nigeria, Angola, and Zambia accordingly suffer economic stagnation”.
Sekibo averred that there are reasons why Nigeria needs to urgently pursue diversification noting that it is important to insulate the economy from the dangers of a mono-economy. He explained that the challenges of over-dependence on oil will expose Nigeria to constant price fluctuations emphasizing the need to create more jobs since the oil and gas jobs are only about one percent of the total job available in the county.
He called for increased youth participation in MSME sectors that are non-oil sectors but that will be major growth drivers such as healthcare, e-commerce, logistics, and supply chain, agriculture, and alternative or renewable energy, sectors which, he said, are the future of global economic growth.
In healthcare, Sekibo noted that the pharmaceutical and Health-tech space is positioned to attract investments and deliver growth post-covid-19 while supporting the weak healthcare system prevalent in the country, stressing that the technology innovations space will be major growth drivers alongside other critical sectors that will create multiple job opportunities.
He asserted that MSMEs are capable of creating multiple jobs in Nigeria just as it is seen in other developing and developed economies such as China, Indonesia, India, Singapore, and other south-east Asian economies.
Sekibo advocated for MSMEs to adopt sound corporate governance and administrative frameworks that guarantee accountability and can attract investments with diverse and quality board members. He also said many of the challenges facing MSMEs are responsible for lack of growths which include such issues as lack of transparency and accountability and lack of openness to developmental growth.
He noted that to help MSMEs to grow, Heritage Bank initiated “THE NEXT TITAN” which is designed to bring together young entrepreneurs, from across the country, for business grooming, mentorship, and for mainstreaming them into corporate governance enabling frameworks that will position their businesses for growth and scale.
Sekibo asked MSMEs in the Niger Delta not to feel any sense of despair as the big entrepreneurs of today such as Jack Ma of Alibaba, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Dangote of DANGOTE Group all started small and from very poor or disadvantaged backgrounds.
On his part, Moses Siloko Siasia who is the convener of the Summit and the Chairman of Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF) as well as the Niger Delta Young Professionals – expressed his determination to provide the enabling framework, by way of an entrepreneurship Hub and funding drive, to help MSMEs in the Niger Delta region thrive and ensure that youths in the region are involved in productive and creative ventures instead of waiting for stipends from governments or depending on oil revenues.
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