The federal government has disclosed that Small and Medium Enterprises employed 59 million Nigerians and over 41 million businesses as of this year. This was disclosed by the Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Dr Dikko Umaru-Radda, on Tuesday at the 2021 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Opportunity Fair in Kano.
The SME Policy boss added that the sector has many challenges to contend with in Nigeria, which limits growth in the industry. “Understanding that access to market is one of such challenges; SMEDAN has over the years, assiduously worked to ensure opportunity fairs are held even when it demands the development of ICT platforms.
“The annual event is usually implemented in the North and South geo-political zones of the country to further enhance Nigeria MSMEs prominence, competitiveness and development,” Umaru-Radda said. He revealed that SMEDAN would continue to register businesses on MSMEs Mass Registration Programme Platform to enhance competitiveness among them. Umaru-Radda also said that the 2021 MSMEs survey to be conducted by the agency, in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, would commence across the country later his month, disclosing that so far 41 million businesses employ 59 million Nigerians.
What you should know
Recall the last unemployment report stated that Nigeria’s unemployment rate at the end of 2020 rose to 33.3% from 27.1% recorded as of Q2 2020, indicating that about 23,187,389 (23.2 million) Nigerians remain unemployed.
https://nairametrics.com/2021/08/04/unemployment-msmes-employ-59-million-nigerians-smedan/
