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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) have formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding to provide support including infrastructure and digital literacy targeting Nigeria’s over 40 million of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
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The MoU is building on an earlier agreement by the two government agencies to implement the agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at reforming the economy for sustained inclusive growth by accelerating diversification and highlighting the pivotal role of SMEs.
The MoU recognises SMEs as the backbone of the Nigeria’s economic landscape and its primary focus is on the growth of SMEs and tackling startup challenges underlined by the Nigeria Startup Act.
The new deal signifies a crucial step towards harnessing technology to revolutionise Nigeria’s SMEs’ landscape for sustainable growth and prosperity.
With the MoU, the two agencies have established a strategic partnership to ensure that issues relating to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are addressed in implementing the Startup Act.
According to NITDA’s Director General, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, SMEs the are critical to the economy and represent over 90% of businesses.
Underscoring the need for technological innovation to enhance productivity in the sector, he added: “when you talk about critical sectors, SMEs are the first and if we want to create prosperity for our country, we should start by digitising SMEs”.
He emphasised the necessity of creating a comprehensive database of SMEs to facilitate targeted incentives and foster digital literacy among entrepreneurs even as he highlighted the transformative potential of technology in expanding market reach and enhancing the productivity of entrepreneurs’ businesses.
He added: “As SMEs, you can use technology to expand your market reach and at NITDA, we have trained women on ICT and they have been able to expand their market reach and productivity using social media platforms. If we can do this, it will change the SMEs landscape in Nigeria.
“In Africa, we have 7 Unicorns and out of them, 5 originated from Nigeria. So, we believe that with technology, we can help all the SMEs to scale up, increase their productivity and create sustainable prosperity for our country”.
The SMEDAN’s Director General, Charles Odii stated that the essence of the agreement is to collaborate with NITDA in fulfilling the mandate of the government to create jobs and digitise Nigeria’s economy.
Any business that does not take advantage of digital innovation and services is short-changing itself, Odii said noting that if the 40 million small businesses in the country equip themselves with digital processes and employ at least five people, they will have a significant impact on Nigeria’s economy.
“What we are doing here in addition to sensitising the public on the implementation of the Startup Act is to organise our small businesses where they can use innovative solutions to solve their problems”, he said.
