Folarin Kehinde

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has made its commitment towards leveraging partnership within the D-8 to promote, encourage, advance and support the activities of MSMEs at the national level as well as within the D-8 region to further strengthen economic, trade and commercial integration and linkages.

D8, also referred to as Developing-8, is an international organisation specifically established for the development cooperation among countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

The Director-General, SMEDAN, Olawale Fasanya, stated that with a proposal for a D-8 centre already submitted, the agency is optimistic that the establishment of the D-8 Centre for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will unleash substantial development impacts.

Fasanya has also promised to work with key stakeholders to cause a positive shift in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development narrative in Nigeria, given its critical but highly endangered status in the economy.

Fasanya made the remark at an interactive session with the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (Gocop) and editors, where he shared his vision and approach to ensure regular inter-agency cooperation and networking with stakeholders to leverage on available opportunities to close the gaps among key players within the MSME space.

Emphasising how important the sub-sector is to national economic growth and the several challenges which the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia have further worsened, Fasanya said the challenges of MSMEs usually border on access to finance, market, equipment, information, technical and entrepreneurial skills and workspace.

Reeling out his vision for the sub-sector, he said he had already started engaging with the staff of the agency and other MSMEs-enabling stakeholders, as a continuous exercise both locally and internationally.

“I will be meeting some key stakeholders in Lagos to enable me to harvest inputs directly from real MSMEs players. I am however aware that they were consulted during the process of reviewing the National Policy but the MSME space is very dynamic requiring regular engagements and feedback.”

Many have expressed worry over the mental fitness of the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, after the incoherent reply he gave when asked about how he intends to tackle climate change.

Tinubu, while fielding questions about climate change at the Arewa Interactive Committee event, described climate change as “A question of how do you prevent a church rat from eating poisoned Holy Communion.”  

“We are a poor nation. They say firewood is not for fetching. They say we need to plant more trees and they are not giving us money. We need to tell the West, if you don’t guarantee our finances and work with us to stop this, we are not going to comply with your climate change,” Tinubu said.

The recent blunder is coming 48 hours after he described the governor of Kaduna State as being creative in turning a rotten situation to a bad one during his address at the seventh Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit

In recent times, massive flooding has ravaged communities across the country, displacing citizens and submerging farmlands.

Mr Tinubu’s response that he would not comply with precautionary actions except if being funded by the West suggests that Nigerians would have to suffer the devastating effect of flood triggered by climate if he wins next year’s election.

Meanwhile, reacting to the statement, the spokesperson of the People’s Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Management Committee, Dino Melaye, has said that Bola Tinubu, is neither fit nor prepared for the Nigerian presidency.

Melaye described Tinubu’s statement as unguarded and an insult to Christians.

In his statement, he said: “The APC presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, plunged into new depths of desecration when, by an unguarded and unrelated flow of thought, he despised the body of Christ by profaning the sacrament of communion and besmirching the church”.

The Federal Government has continued to detain Nnamdi Kanu, despite the Appeal Court ruling to release him from DSS custody.

FG indicated that it is not yet ready to release Nnamdi Kanu, over 24 hours after the Court of Appeal in Abuja freed him.

Addressing journalists after a national security meeting in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, said the government was still reviewing the court’s decision before taking a position on it.

Re-echoing the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who gave the government’s first reaction to the verdict late on Thursday, Mr Dingyadi said Mr Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was only discharged and not acquitted by the court.

Mr Kanu, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United Kingdom, has been detained by the State Security Service (SSS) over terrorism charges filed against him since he was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June last year.

Twenty-four hours after the charges against him were dismissed and his release ordered by the appellate court, Mr Dingyadi said on Friday that the government was still reviewing the case, and would make its position known after weighing all available legal options.

“Similarly, the issue of Kanu has also been raised and Council was briefed on the state of things on the matter and it was observed that Kanu was discharged, but he was not acquitted.

“So, the government is considering the appropriate action to be taken on the matter and Nigerians will be notified of the position that will finally be taken on the matter in due course,” Mr Dingyadi said.

Mr Dingyadi’s comment is a repeat of the exact claims by Mr Malami in a statement on Thursday.

The “discharged-but-not-acquitted” line is seen by lawyers as a fuzzy basis for the government’s attempt to continue to hold Mr Kanu in custody against the Court of Appeal’s clear order for his release.

After the suspension of the Strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, many Universities across the nation are holding an emergency meeting to determine the timeline for resumption and academic activities.

ASUU suspended its recent strike action on the 14th of October, 8 months after it embarked on it.

In a statement by the union’s National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, the union explained that it suspended the strike based on a court order while noting that the government had yet to meet some of its demands.

However, universities are set to hold special meetings to deliberate on new academic calendars instead of the one that was destabilised by the strike.

According to a memo, the University of Benin has slated a special senate meeting for October 18, 2022.

The memo, which was signed by the institution’s Deputy Registrar, M.I. Owie, partly read, “The vice-chancellor, Prof Lilian Salami, has approved that the meeting of the provost, deans, and directors should be held at the senate chambers on Tuesday, October 18, 2022.”

In a memo from the Federal University of Lafia, the school noted that the senate council would meet on Monday (today) indicating its focus on “reviewing the academic calendar.”

Other universities which have announced meetings for the Senate Council include the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, October 18, 2022; the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, October 17, 2022; the Federal University of Dustin-Ma, Katsina, October 17, 2022; and the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, among others.

Meanwhile, other universities, such as Sule Lamido University, have ordered students to resume immediately.

In a memo addressed to students and members of staff, the university management “encouraged students to resume back to school.”

Other schools that have announced resumption include the Tai-Solarin University of Education, the University of Port-Harcourt; the University of Calabar and Bayero University Kano.