Support SMEs for national development, don urges varsities, research institutions

A professor of Economics at the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Isaiah Olurinola, has called on the authorities of tertiary institutions and research centres across the country to reach out to willing informal sector actors for assistance.
Oluriola said that the tertiary institutions’ collaboration with the informal sector should first come in the area of skills development, and later marketing/sourcing of finance.
The don told our correspondent after he delivered a lecture at the university that the study of the informal economy was growing and more work was required as the sector was vast expanding, especially in the developing economies of the world.
He added that the informal sector had proved to be the major employers of labour, not only for those displaced in the formal sector, but also for some persons, who recognised the opportunities in the sector, and were voluntarily exploiting the advantages of its income and employment opportunities.
Such opportunities, according to him, include skill development, through the apprenticeship system, possibility of owning an enterprise and becoming a master-craftsperson, after training and the opportunity to make a career.
He explained further that the process started when a university had located the informal sector actor or a social enterprise it wanted to partner with and a Memorandum of Understanding was drawn and signed.
The university’s main mandate, according to the don, was to strike an agreement with the informal sector actor concerned on any area of need with respect to skills development and innovation.
“Volunteering members of faculty and students will help to upgrade the skill of members of staff of the enterprise through periodic visits by the university representative,” he said.
Olurinola also explained that the strategic and structured partnership would be expected to be a mutually benefitting arrangement leading to a win-win relationship.
He said, “The Informal Sector Actor receives training in skill and product development, while the university benefits by the exposure of her students to the needed industrial experience that will further enhance employability.
“For faculty, rich enterprise-based data are made available for research, while exposure to practical situation enhances teaching quality.”
On how the strategy can work for the economy of the country, the professor of economics urged government to have policy measures that would encourage these enterprises to be incorporated and, thus, link them up with formal financial sources.
“Also, markets, together with the expected improvement in the macro-environment, will further enhance the ability of the informal sector as a ladder out of poverty,” he said.
He urged government to be more committed to the implementation of the national agenda for economic recovery and growth as articulated in the Economic and Recovery Growth Plan document, together with the active strategic support of the educational and research institutions.
These, among others, he said, would assist in the process of the transition of Informal
Sector Actors, from the informal status to formality.