SMEDAN registers 2m MSMEs nationwide

The Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Dr Dikko Umaru Radda, said the agency has registered two million Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide under its mass registration exercise.

Dr Radda disclosed this when he hosted the Head of UNIDO’s ITPO in Nigeria, Abimbola Olufore, in Abuja Thursday.

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He said one of the solutions of Nigeria’s security challenges was the empowerment of MSMEs, and that the present government was working hard to address their challenges.

The SMEDAN boss said his agency’s One Local Government One Product (OLOP) programme had proven effective in advancing small businesses across the country.

In the meeting, SMEDAN and the Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) agreed to collaborate on the development of MSMEs in the country.

The Head of UNIDO’s ITPO in Nigeria, Abimbola Olufore, said MSMEs in Nigeria would face competition from their counterparts from other African countries under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

She said there was a need for standardisation of products from MSMEs to better position Nigeria in the expanded intra-African trade.

Olufore said the ITPO in Nigeria would collaborate with SMEDAN and other investment promotion agencies to promote investment drive and render technical assistance to small businesses across the country.