BY Guest Writer
BY EMEKA ORJIH
“Never let a serious crisis go to waste” – Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to US President Obama
Nigeria is in a serious crisis. The removal of petrol subsidy, essential as it is, piles incredible socio-economic pressure on already impoverished people, especially the 133 million living in multidimensional poverty. Inflation, already at 22.41% as of May 2023, is headed upwards. Stagflation is not far away.
Buried deep within these crises, however, is an opportunity. An opportunity to rethink and rebuild for greatness that which essentially is the engine room of Nigeria’s economic life – MSMEs. The ILO estimates that MSMEs contribute 48% of Nigeria’s GDP, account for 96% of businesses and as much as 84% of all employment! This simply means that if you can help MSMEs grow, you can help the highest number of Nigerians grow.
With petrol subsidy removed, the strategic imperative for the government presently should be to cushion the resultant negative socio-economic effects on citizens. There are only two ways to do that; increase citizen earnings or/and decrease price points of items citizens spend their earnings on.
Helping MSMEs grow ticks these two boxes simultaneously – MSME owners and employees earn more, while competition between increasing numbers of successful MSMEs drives prices down.
How then can government help MSMEs grow?
I know these strategies will work because I have actively seen them work in the course of my 29 years extensive experience delivering MSME impacts across 12 countries on the continents of North America, South Asia, and Africa. As assistant country director of USADF, I was in charge of operations for the only US government agency dedicated to building MSMEs on the African continent.
In Philadelphia, I worked for the US government agency dedicated to building MSMEs in the US – the Small Business Administration (SBA). I have worked for the World Bank Group in Washington DC and SE Asia delivering public sector reforms that aided MSME growth in Laos, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia; been MD of the largest CSR platform in Nigeria (where we built thousands of MSMEs with billions of CSR funds from blue chip companies MTN, Mobil, NLNG, etc); been managing partner of an international strategy consulting firm focused on helping international development agencies and offshore VCs and Funds partner MSMEs in Africa; been founder of a vibrant MSME innovation
hub in Nigeria; and been a successful serial social entrepreneur.
In these capacities, I have created and nurtured over 15,000 MSMEs across three continents – successfully syndicating international finance and know-how; tackling planning, supply chain and operational issues; and creating linkages to guaranteed markets globally.
I have a strong passion for MSMEs and their potential impact. I know that in the right hands, MSMEs would very literally change Nigeria and its economic landscape. Thus far though, one major driver of their poor performance in Nigeria has been inadequacy, not in principle, but in capacity to deploy and implement impactful MSME programs. As examples, I’ll pick three agencies as case studies to communicate this.
The three government-owned development finance agencies in Nigeria: the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), the Bank of Industry (BOI), and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) have not been operating optimally.
DBN, BOI and NEXIM require a comprehensive review – perhaps not in the mandate, but certainly in
implementation. As do other government agencies operating in this critical MSME space. We must bring
capacity for implementation into all of them – through appropriate human resourcing, structured
implementation processes, and quality impact management.
This is a perfect opportunity to rebuild MSME administration and promotion from the ground up in Nigeria. And in the process, to cushion the impact of subsidy removal — while helping millions of Nigerians create sustainable wealth.
If called upon, I will be happy to develop a robust and achievable implementation plan, complete with non-government sources of finance, to drive this MSME revamp.
It was the French military strategist and general, Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch, who, at the 1st battle of the Marne during the 1st World War, so colourfully captured his very difficult position and his decision to, against all odds, attack: “Hard pressed on my right, my centre is yielding, impossible to manoeuvre. Situation excellent. I am attacking”.
Nigeria is hard-pressed on her right, our centre is yielding, and the situation is critical. But the situation is also excellent. It is the perfect time to ‘attack’ Nigeria’s MSME space. And just by the way, Ferdinand Foch won that battle of the Marne!
Orjih, a Wharton MBA and a finance and development strategist, was the assistant country
director of USADF (United States African Development Foundation). He can be reached via orjihemeka@gmail.com or 08134018410
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