Associationof Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria(AMEN) president, Prince Saviour Iche has urged the government to address funding challenges of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the current economic situation has placed financial pressure on all companies.
Speaking with The Nation, Iche said, with access to working capital remaining a substantial challenge for most businesses, especially SMEs, there is a need to create alternatives as the resultant cycle of liquidity shortfalls puts further pressure on their ability to conduct business and service overheads.
Although many businesses are aware of potential sources of funding, he said, the costs and requirements for accessing funding are prohibitive, as a result, many potential entrepreneurs are prevented from accessing secured debt financing from financial institutions.
He implored banks to establish SMEs to promote entrepreneurial development and provide finance to local businesses.
Unreliable electricity supply, poor quality and limited breadth of road and rail networks, and poor communications infrastructure, he said, are having a significant impact on the cost of doing business.
To ameliorate this, he called on the incoming government to make energy an urgent priority to save enterprises from collapsing following increasing expenditure on generators to run their factories.
Iche said businesses have been forced to depend on generating their power needs as current problems with load shedding is not helping energy throughput for industrial consumption.
While urging the incoming government to explore and bring to fruition opportunities to secure power supply , Iche stressed the need to intensify infrastructure development such as roads and electricity, adding that achieving the vision of a more prosperous and productive nation will require successful local entrepreneurs.
He reiterated that SMEs believe that they shared responsibilities for employment creation, poverty reduction and youth development, but need the government support to participate in the national effort at improving standard of living, reducing crime rate, increase in per capita income and rapid growth in Gross Domestic Product(GDP) among others.
He noted that the economy needs industrialisation policies to favour medium and large enterprises, to stimulate economic growth and development, adding that renewed emphasis on the SMEs is a catalyst to the nation’s industrialisation quest.
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