Nigeria must prioritise SMEs to create prosperity – NITDA boss Inuwa Abdullahi

The Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi has said that Nigeria must prioritise Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, if the country is serious about creating prosperity.

Abdullahi stated this on Friday when he led a NITDA team that signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN.

He noted that SMEs are the engine room of the economy, calling for the creation of the database of the SMEs in the country to bring to an end the conflicting figures being churned out.

“We talk about more than 40 million SMEs in Nigeria. That number represents more than 90 per cent of businesses in Nigeria,” he said.

“President Bola Tinubu has mandated our Ministry to accelerate the diversification of the economy by enhancing productivity in critical sectors through technological innovation.

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“If we really want to create prosperity for our country we should start prioritizing SMEs. We’ve been talking about millions, 40 millions, how many millions of jobs… but we don’t have data.

“Sometimes we get conflicting figures when you come to that. So, I believe we can partner together to create that database of all SMEs in Nigeria. When we have the database we can easily decide incentives for them.

“We should know what they want and as well as foster digital literacy. Because you can use technology as an SME, to expand your market reach.

“It can also help them to be part of the digital economy because our target is for every Nigerian to be part of the digital economy.

“And when you’re talking about the engine room the SMEs should be our major focus. You can start your local market and with technology you can become global.

“Technology will help you come up with new business value proposition. Facebook, Twitter and others started as SMEs before growing to become global brands. We have seen SMEs grow from nothing to become million dollar companies.”