The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has stressed the need for the incoming administration in 2023 to sustain gains made by the government in the nation’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Osinbajo, who gave this advice yesterday, while playing host to members of the Made-in-Nigeria project led by Adedeji Alebiosu, at the State House, Abuja, said the momentum built by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in the last seven years must be maintained given its crucial position in the economy.
The group, representing a coalition of MSMEs in Nigeria, were at the presidential villa to commend the federal government and appreciate the vice president’s support for MSMEs in the country over the past seven years.
The vice president said, “we must be as determined as possible going forward in maintaining the momentum built over the years in the MSME space.
“How we sustain the MSME Clinics, how it is institutionalised in a way that the incoming vice presidents or presidents are obliged to pay close attention to whatever is happening in the sector, is very important.”
He assured MSME stakeholders in the country that, “we will make sure that we provide everything that is required to enable the incoming administration step into the positions that we have created in the MSME space. We are in a very good place.”
Talking about the Made-in-Nigeria concept and the need to develop local capacity, Osinbajo said government must find a way it could fit-in in the value chain, acknowledging, however that no economy could be self-sustaining.
“What we need to do is to find our comparative advantage and develop capacity in the value chain around manufacturing of electric vehicles, arms manufacturing etc,” he said.
The vice president who said there were challenges in manufacturing of items, creating jobs and wealth added that, “There is a lot of real and serious work that needs to be done. What should our approach be in terms of the value chain? We are a huge economy and a huge market.”
“The problem people have always faced is how to engage our massive population in a meaningful way because anything you do seems like a drop in an ocean due to the enormity of the problem,” the he added.
Earlier in his remarks, Alebiosu commended Osinbajo for his commitment to the growth of small businesses in the country even as he acknowledged his contributions through key interventions supervised under his office, noting that they positively impacted small businesses in the space.
