Nigeria to Inaugurate Council for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises

The Federal Government is set to inaugurate the Council for Small and Medium scale Enterprises in Nigeria (SMEs) as part of measures to support the over 40 million small businesses in Nigeria.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Job Creations and SMEs, Tola Adekunle-Johnson, made this known at the graduation of 5,300 SMBs from Google’s Hustle Academy.

This graduation marked the continuation of the programme’s impact, with over 10,300 entrepreneurs having participated since its inception in 2022 with 4,400 from Nigeria.

The Hustle Academy, designed to address specific challenges faced by SMBs in Africa, offers practical skills and resources to help these businesses grow.

Adekunle-Johnson said the SME Council was necessary, going by the significant contributions of small businesses to the Nigerian economy, stressing that SMEs need huge support to thrive, especially now.

While appreciating the efforts of Google, the SSA on Job Creation and SMEs said the Federal Government will support what the technology firm is doing.

Corroborating the need to support SMEs, the Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Charles Odii, said SMEs are the life wire of any economy.

Odii disclosed that the likes of MTN, Google and other multinationals are just four percent of the businesses in the country, while the rest 96 percent are small businesses doing so much.

He said the SMBs create 80 percent of the jobs in the economy and about 72 percent of such businesses are led by women within the age range of 20 to 60 years.