SMEDAN reiterates commitment to restructure MSMEs database

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Dr Dikko Umaru Radda has reiterated the Agency’s commitment to redesign and restructure the pattern Micro Small Medium and Enterprises (MSMEs) data are generated and used in Nigeria.

This, the Director-General said would be achieved with the adoption of a Comprehensive MSMEs Marketplace Database initiative.

Radda stated this on Wednesday in a remark at the opening of a stakeholders Forum on the Comprehensive MSMEs Marketplace Database Project in Abuja.

Radda, who was represented by Mr Wale Fasanya, Director Planning Research, Monitoring and Evaluation noted that the initiative seeks to generate a more reliable and better ‘structured’ database for better planning and more informed decision making by relevant stakeholders within the SME Ecosystem.

He further explained that the process would include the development of a standardized data capturing format or the framework that will guide all SMEs-related surveys or census.

The initiative would also enable demand-driven relationships and match-making between SMEs and Large Enterprises (LEs) and enable better and more specific MSMEs listing by the sector, location, input requirements, products and services, output, financing gaps and so on, the DG said.

“Other deliverables of this the initiative according to the Director-General will be to fast-track market linkages and cooperation amongst MSMEs, Large Enterprises, investors (both public and private entities).

“It will ensure better enterprise and stakeholders cooperation, enhance regulatory oversight as congruent with the vision of the Agency, which is to establish a structured and efficient MSME sub-sector that will encourage and enhance sustainable economic development in Nigeria,” he added.

The DG further said that the exercise will help the agency to establish standard benchmarks that would facilitate the profiling and mainstreaming of Nigerian SMEs into the Global SME Community

“In line with this the Agency has engaged an international consulting firm Duns and Bradstreet Nigeria Limited to carry out this study in four (4) major commercial States i.e. Lagos, Ogun, Kano and Abia.”

“The choice of these States was based on the fact that they are areas of very high socio-economic activities and that the findings in these states would enable the agency to upscale the survey to other states in the next phase of the project”, Rafa stated.

He said that the deliverables of the project, would be carried out by the production of a comprehensive need-based concept document for the MSMEs National Database exercise in conjunction with SMEDAN and the development of field methods/suitable instruments and tools with which to capture requisite information from the target MSMEs.