The Katsina State Government, northwest Nigeria, has reiterated its commitment to build an ecosystem where businesses can thrive, innovate, and compete both locally and globally.
The Governor of the state, Mr Dikko Radda who disclosed this during the Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, NMSMEs stakeholders roundtable in Abuja said the approach will be by creating a supportive environment for entrepreneurs, facilitating access to finance, fostering skills development and providing the infrastructure needed to unlock the full potential entrepreneurs.
Governor Radda enumerated challenges hindering the growth of the MSME sector in Katsina State to include; difficulty in accessing finance, limited access to business, inadequate data for decision-making, lack of market access and linkages, skills gap and capacity constraints, absence of institutionalised MSME support, poor infrastructure and unfriendly business environment, barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship and a weak MSME ecosystem.
According to him, “I am pleased to share the progress we have made in transforming the MSMEs ecosystem in Katsina State, the establishment of Katsina Enterprise Development Agency (KASEDA)”
“We created KASEDA, a dedicated agency to serve as the central hub for MSME support and development in Katsina State, we launched a ₦5 Billion Matching Fund with the Bank of Industry (BOI), a significant milestone, as this was the first time such a fund was secured despite a BOI presence in Katsina for 8 years, we partnered with SMEDAN and Sterling Bank for a ₦1 Billion Matching Fund, ensuring more financing options for small businesses.
“In collaboration with UNDP, we established a ₦542 Million Matching Fund to support SMEs in frontline local governments affected by conflict, we re-inaugurated the MSME Council, making it a vibrant platform for shaping policies that directly impact MSMEs, we are remodelling the Katsina Industrial Development Centre and have established Common Facility Centers for fashion, printing, food processing, and ICT and through the Dikko Business Development Service Corp, we provided technical support to businesses, ensuring they meet the requirements of financial institutions while offering necessary guidance for success,” he explained.
Mr Radda added that round table represents an opportunity to collaborate on innovative solutions and initiatives that will shape the future of small businesses in Katsina State.
The Nigerian Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Ahmed Dangiwa while speaking plegde the collaboration of the ministry particularly in areas where housing and entrepreneurship intersect.
“By empowering our people with affordable homes, we create a stable environment that supports businesses growth and innovation, as the Minister of Housing Urban Development, I am ready and willing to provide any level of support towards ensuring that your achieve your very noble goals of leveraging MSME to make Katsina a great state,” he noted.
The Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA, Mr Kashifu Abdullahi, explained that it was important to empower SMEs with digital skills, to enable them can do more in terms of expanding the market.
“It will also help them to increase their efficiency if they are delivering services as well as cost saving, it will also help them in enhance customer engagement, because through WhatsApp today, our SMEs can reach customers, they can share what they have with them to see and do transaction.” Mr Abdullahi said.
Also the Managing Director Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu revealed that to create electricity opportunities for entrepreneurs the federal government signed the Electricity Act, which has liberalized the sector.
“And liberalisation of the sector is nothing more than given opportunity for state to participate in the entire value chain of electricity, and I’m happy to say that Katsina state is one of the states, few states that has already started that journey of creating that electricity market and we have completely mapped the entire Kasina state.”
Comments are closed.