Ajoint effort between the Federal Government and the private sector, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises sub-sector, will end the current economic recession facing the country.
This position was canvassed by the head, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation’s Investment and Technology Promotion Office, Kingdom of Bahrain, Dr. Hashim Hussein.
The UNIDO chief said that recession should not affect the activities of SMEs, because there were always young entrepreneurs, (not only young in age, but also in business), with ideas to start businesses.
He added that generating and implementing business ideas had nothing to do with recession, because there were demands for small businesses to grow at all times.
“The recession generally affects big businesses and not small and medium businesses, if they have good strategy, policy and programme to support them, they will always have a niche in the market.
Government needs to build and follow an ecosystem for micro and small businesses, which even in recession, they can easily adapt to and succeed. Nigeria has a big and stable market, government should ensure it has a well-integrated homogeneous system for small businesses,” he advised.
In the same vein, the Director-General, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said government must speed up its economic activities and develop private sector investment, if it was determined to end the current economic recession.
“If the government does what it is supposed to do, put the right policies in place, things will improve and foreign investment will increase. We must ensure that our foreign exchange, monetary, fiscal, trade and tax policies inspire confidence. Once we are able to deal with policies at those levels, confidence will certainly be restored and we will get out of recession,” he said.
To the President, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Prof. Olusegun Ajibola, both regulators and operators in the Nigerian stock market need to contribute their quota to the rebound of the economy and the market.
Ajibola said that the market would rebound, a development which he said would also have a ripple effect on the economy at large. He, however, said all stakeholders must attract more investments, either local or foreign, to keep the market afloat.
He said, “I believe the market will rebound. We must be optimistic in our thinking. We are looking up to the regulators and operators of the capital market to assist in convincing the whole world about the importance of investing in the Stock Exchange.
“The 22nd edition of the World Conference of Banking Institutes to be hosted by Nigeria in April this year would be a good opportunity to showcase the country’s potentials.
It would be an opportunity to showcase the investment opportunities in the country and to correct certain wrong impressions about Nigeria.”
Ajibola added that government must take its export promotion strategies very seriously and should diversify its earnings base.
He added, “The reliance on oil as major source of revenue is too heavy. We need to reduce the significance of oil on our economy.
“So, if we can start diversifying into agriculture, solid minerals, manufacturing, and expand our export potential, we would be able to earn more foreign exchange from other sources other than oil.
Then, we also need to look inward more than ever before. The challenge, the message is coming to us that we don’t need to rely too much on other countries to feed our population.”
