Business Owners Protest Eviction Order by SMEDAN  

By Obinna Chima 

The Association of Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria (AMEN) has called on the federal government to stop the eviction notice given to over 40 of its members using Industrial Development Centre (IDC) Ikorodu, Lagos State.

The eviction notice was given by the Small & Meduim Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).

Speaking at a media briefing organised by AMEN in Lagos at the weekend, the group’s National President, Saviour Ichie, said his members had written to the Vice President, the Bank of Industry (BoI) and other key government agencies highlighting the implications of the alleged order from IDC management.

In a statement titled: Anti-Industrilisation Renovation Schedule at Industrial Development Centre (IDC), Ikorodu,  Ichie alleged that his association last week received a seven–day quit notice to move away from the centre.

According the AMEN President, the order to vacate the centre would affect their relationship with Bank of Industry (BoI) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

 “We don’t want renovation of the cluster because most of the members had borrowed monies from BoI and other financial institutions to renovate the place.

“There are about 19  hectres of land there, more than forty of our members with over a hundred staff are doing their businesses there, we have been using the centre for the about five years now and there is enough space for them to build more clusters, because we have more people outside who are hoping to occupy the centre.”

According to him, the move was adeliberate action to kill their businesses, sack the workers and throw the owners of such businesses into already saturatedjob market.

Continuing, he said the entrepreneurs also secured funds from the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to boost their operations and needs a conducive operating environment to thrive and repay any credit obtained by them.

“We want to declare that this decision to quit micro entrepreneurs from IDC Ikorodu is anti-industrilisation,” Ichie said.

“The government should come to our aid because most of my members have good products that are doing well in the Nigerian market and outside the Nigerian market. We are appealing to those that are concerned in regulating businesses in Nigeria not to allow small industries to die.

“If they push us out because of renovation, what would happen to the monies we borrowed from BoI and other financial institutions? We don’t want what we have to die, we have brains, we can even do better than the western world, all we needed is encouragement and conducive environment to do our business,” he explained.