Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nigeria’s Senate President, Mr Bukola Saraki, has revealed that owners of Small and Medium-scaled Enterprises (SMEs) employ about 88 percent of the country’s workforce.
Mr Saraki made this disclosure at the stakeholders roundtable organised by the Senate to address increasing interest rates in Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the Senate President, poultry and cassava farmers, welders, builders, fashion designers, filmmakers, shoemakers, furniture companies and other numerous SMEs deserve to be given a chance to stay alive and make a living for their families.
He said it was important for government to come up with a reasonable interest rate for the above set of people to make them stay afloat in their line of business to also help the economy.
The Senate President argued that making SMEs owners to pay 25-30 percent interest on loans taken from banks will lead to death of SMEs in the country because it would be impossible for them “to survive” with such.
“We must as a matter of deliberate policy frame our monetary policy regime towards support for businesses otherwise, our economy rescue mission may not be attained.
“It will be profoundly improbable to genuine businesses like agriculture, production and solid minerals to survive on interest rate regime of 30 percent.
“Let’s give a chance to our poultry and cassava farmers, welders, builders, our fashion designers, filmmakers, shoemakers, furniture companies and our other numerous small and medium sized industries a chance to stay alive and make a living for their families,” the Senate President begged.
He said, “These people; the SMEs, are the reason we are gathered here. These entrepreneurs employ 88 percent of our work force.
“They have demanded and we should find a means to give them a new interest rate. If we don’t, we will all be poorer for it. If we are able to, we will all ultimately benefit.”
Mr Saraki expressed confidence that, “With the calibre of people gathered here, we will find a workable solution that will put a halt on the current rising interest rates regime and return profitability viability to Nigerian enterprises.”
This, he said, “will be the beginning of a new era of prosperity and inclusive growth that we all yearn for. This is our only option if we are to build a virile private sector that will meet our developmental needs.”
