"Majority of Nigerian MSMEs are Nano-Businesses" - SMEDAN

Against popular notion, the new national policy on MSMEs categorizes Nigerian businesses with an annual turnover of less than 3 million naira as nano or micro-micro businesses and not even small businesses.

File Photo: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo with business owners at the MSME Clinic, last year

This was one of the revealing takeaways from the maiden edition of the virtual MSMEs Educational Series with the theme Understanding the New National Policy on MSMEs, organized by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and facilitated by Femi Boyede Consulting Limited.

Distinguishing the new classifications, Mr Onesi-Lawani Daberuje, SMEDAN’s Deputy-Director at the Department of Policy, Planning, Research, Monitoring & Evaluation explained that, “the bulk of the supposed microenterprises under the old policy are ‘Mom-and-Pop’ enterprises (i.e. Tiny and family-owned, controlled and operated businesses). If a business has an annual turnover of less than 3 million naira, it is a nano business or a micro-micro/homestead business, while businesses with an annual turnover of 3 - 9 million naira are classified as small businesses.” 

Mr. Onesi-Lawani also shared some of the priority areas of the new national policy on MSMEs which includes the empowerment of women and youths, as the policy has created provision for access to women funding as well as linkages to MSMEs export.

Highlighting the key points from the webinar, the convener, Mr. Femi Boyede explained that the main concerns of participants during the event will be formally presented to SMEDAN. Stressing that information remains one of the key ingredients for success in business, he regretted the poor level of business education among the over 30 million registered Nigerian MSMEs. “In the next series, we will customize the webinar to be more constructive and beneficial for participants. It is not only about SMEDAN, we are exploring the possibilities of bringing other relevant government agencies such as NAFDAC and commercial banks to this platform.”

The webinar which took place on Saturday, 24th September 2022 was officially opened by Mr. Monday Ewans, the Director, Enterprise Development who represented Mr. Olawale Fasanya, the Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). In his opening remark, he explained that the webinar series is meant to serve as an MSMEs clinic for the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). “Through this educational series, we want to bring the MSMEs together to practically learn, and to give them an opportunity to table their challenges and get practical solutions from experts with a view of becoming conversant with issues that affect their businesses, starting with the new national policy on MSMEs.” Mr. Ewans said.