Richest man in Africa and the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to pump more money into the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) for the purpose of stimulating economic growth and development.
In a chat with newsmen, Dangote said that the best way to create jobs and increase the standard of living of Nigerians is for the apex bank to effectively fund the sector that is known as the engine for growth.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should also step up its interventions in the area of improving funding for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs). This will create jobs and raise the standard of living of the people.”
Dangote bemoaned the high rate of unemployment in the country, adding that effective funding of the small and medium scale enterprises will drastically reduce the high rate of unemployment in the country.
“Unemployment arises basically because job opportunities are not being created fast enough to match the ever-increasing work force. This is one of the effects of many years of de-industrialization in the country. Retrenchment both in the public service and the private sector also continue to exacerbate the unemployment crises.”
Quoting a United Nations (UN) report, Dangote said youth unemployment rose to 42 percent in 2016 with many graduates combing the streets in major cities such as Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt in search of often-elusive white-collar jobs while for some who are employed, their situation can best be described as that of under-employment, as they are underutilized and poorly paid.
This development, posited, no doubt, has serious security implications, as evidenced by the high rate of social ills plaguing the nation. “The spate of kidnappings, intermittent vandalism of petroleum pipelines in the Niger Delta, and the protracted insurgency in the North East, are all fuelled, to a large extent, by the high level of endemic poverty in the country.”
Dangote pointed out that the current economic recession has further worsened the situation, as the Government continues to record dwindling revenues thus making it increasingly difficult for the Government to fulfil some of its obligations to the people.
As the Chairman of the National Committee on Job Creation, which was set up in 2010, to address the unemployment situation in Nigeria, Dangote said he worked closely with my committee members to identify priority areas for job creation.
Some of these areas, according to him, include micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs), agriculture and agro-allied industries, manufacturing, entertainment and vocational skills. He said, “I believe we can create new opportunities for MSMEs by linking them up with larger enterprises, through industry clusters. Since a large number of employers in the MSMEs sector are informal family-owned businesses, they can be trained to become more proficient through various capacity building initiatives.” [myad]
