Business

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has commenced training of 30 business men and women on digital skills in marketing of their businesses in Bauchi State.

The Manager, SMEDAN, Bauchi office, Mr Abdulrasheed Aliyu, said this at the training on Thursday.

Aliyu said that the programme was designed under the digital skill training of the agency, in collaboration with a digital institution known as ‘Mind the Gap Nigeria’.

Aliyu, who said that 19 states were picked across the country for the training, added that the participants were representatives of various unions in the markets.

According to him, things are changing in the business world where more people embrace online shopping, hence the training to equip the participants with skills to operate their businesses online and to compete with their counterparts from other developed countries.

“We understand that most businesses now go online and most people are doing their businesses virtually traditionally and one of the missions of SMEDAN is to develop small and medium enterprises to boost their businesses.

“We introduced this training to give them knowledge of how they can go online to do their businesses both nationally and internationally, and that’s why we call it digital skill marketing.

“We want to train our small business owners on how to go online and do their businesses by marketing their products and get more customers for them to get more profit,” he said.

Aliyu also said that the trainer, an expert in Information Communication Technology (ICT), would teach the participants how to go online, and also how to protect their websites as well as how to evade hackers or scammers.

He advised the trainees to take the training very seriously, adding that they would have spent nothing less than N50,000 to acquire the training from a private individual but they were now being given free of charge.

Speaking, Mr Zack Ibrahim, the Trainer and the Community Manager, Mind the Gap Nigeria, Bauchi State Chapter, said the trainees would be trained on how to operate their businesses online locally and internationally.

Ibrahim also said they would be trained on how to provide their services to the people beyond their reach and locality.

“A time will come when people won’t go physically to buy things and this is already happening, especially in advanced countries.

“They should take the training very seriously because by the time they know how to make use of the skills, it will help their businesses.

“It would grow their businesses very well, in fact even in their finances, they will see changes,” he said.

Responding on behalf of the participants, Malam Bala Wunti appreciated the Federal Government and SMEDAN for the ‘laudable’ training, adding that it would enhance their businesses.

He promised to pass the knowledge acquired during the training to other business people not lucky to have been selected for the training.

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The World Bank has lowered its economic growth forecast for Nigeria in 2023 to 3.2 per cent from 3.3 per cent, citing slowdown in global growth, the war in Ukraine and including declining demand from China for commodities produced in Africa.

Citing similar conditions, the World Bank also projected that the Sub-Saharan African region will record a lower economic growth of 3.3 per cent in 2022 from 4.1 per cent recorded in 2021.

Consequently, the World Bank called on the governments in the Sub-Saharan African region to urgently implement measures to restore macro-economic stability and protect the poor in a context of slow growth, high inflation.

The forecasts were contained in the October edition of the World Bank’s Africa’s Pulse, a biannual analysis of the near-term regional macroeconomic outlook, and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Highlighting the growth factors for Nigeria’s economy, the World Bank said: “The Nigerian economy is projected to slow in 2023, down to 3.2 per cent (from 3.3 per cent) and persist at this level the following year.

Growth will be supported mainly by the rebound in private consumption prompted mostly by accommodative monetary policy as inflationary pressures subside.

“Private consumption expenditure is forecast to decrease this year and grow next year. This performance will likely continue in 2024.

On the production side, growth in 2023 will be supported by industry (with the growth of 5.1 per cent) with the mega-refinery project.”

On its growth forecast for the Sub-Saharan African region, the World Bank said: “Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is set to decelerate from 4.1% in 2021 to 3.3% in 2022, a downward revision of 0.3 percentage points since April’s Pulse forecast, mainly as a result of a slowdown in global growth, including flagging demand from China for commodities produced in Africa.

On the factors undermining economic growth in SSA, the World Bank said: “The war in Ukraine is exacerbating already high inflation and weighing on economic activity by depressing both business investments and household consumption. As of July 2022, 29 of 33 countries in SSA with available information had inflation rates over 5% while 17 countries had double-digit inflation.

The Director General and Chief Executive officer of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Mr Olawale Tunde Fasanya has disclosed that his agency is committed to the growth and improvement of MSME’S in the nation.

According to him, The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are globally acknowledged as the oil required for lubricating the engine of socio-economic transformation of any nation.

The MSME sector is strategically positioned to absorb up to 80% of jobs, improve per capita income, increase value addition to raw materials supply, improve export earnings and step-up capacity utilisation in key industries.

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) represent one of the most important sectors of our economy. Of the 39.6 million NMSMEs (as at 31st December, 2020) in Nigeria that employs over 62.5 million people (80.2% of the national labour force) and contributes about 46.31% to the GDP and 6.21% to exports, about 38.4 million are micro-enterprises (96.9%).

Thus, growth in this sector is directly correlated with growth in the economy as a whole and in the level of employment throughout Nigeria.

One of the most critical challenges confronting us as a nation is how to ensure that our strong macro-economic performances translate to improvements in the living standards of our citizens and growth in the MSMEs sub-sector.”

The sector is structured across other key sectors, including Agriculture, Mining and Quarrying, Building and Construction, Manufacturing, Solid Minerals, etc, and thus has strong linkages with the entire range of economic activities in the country.

 They play a pivotal role through several pathways that go beyond job creation. They are growth-supporting sectors that not only contribute significantly to improve living standards, but also bring substantial local capital formation and are responsible for driving innovation and competition in developing economies.

Governments at all levels have undertaken initiatives to promote the growth International Journal of Innovative Development & Policy Studies and development of MSMEs.

The general perspective is that MSMEs are seen as accelerating the attainment of broad socio-economic objectives, including poverty reduction, employment generation, wealth creation, among others.

Meanwhile, for us at SMEDAN, we are more concerned about how you can run your vocation as a business. That is, even after acquiring a vocation, how do you run it successfully as a business and that is where we step in. My analogy is that the world has gone beyond the era of “teach me how to fish”, what is more important now is “what do you do with the fish”?

The Agency is also saddled with the responsibility of contributing to the attainment of every policy of the Federal government of Nigeria and the Cluster Development Approach of the Ministry of Trade and Investment.

SMEDAN’s activities are geared towards building capacity for people to run their business profitably. You can be a graduate of Medicine or a qualified doctor does not mean you can run a hospital, profitably and sustainably.

SMEDAN provide the support to put young and old entrepreneurs on a right path to success and by extension grow the nation’s economy.

As part of its unwavering commitment to job creation, wealth creation, poverty alleviation and food security and entrepreneurship training in Nigeria, recently, SMEDAN, in partnership with the Prisons Fellowship of Nigeria, the Nigerian Correctional Service and the Covenant University organized a training programme which culminated in the graduation and matriculation ceremony of the inmates of the medium security prisons in Kirikiri, Apapa, Lagos.

Also, Fasanya disclosed that “In an effort to ensure a credible access to more affordable finance for MSMEs in Nigeria, the Agency is partnering with an NGO, the African Centre for Global Entrepreneurial Leadership (ACGEL) to implement the Leadership Entrepreneurial Game Show (LEGS) where successful participants will be given N5,000,000.00 (Five million naira only) worth of grants and tools.

The game show is on-going now and all existing and potential entrepreneurs are encouraged to log into www.legs.africa for free registration. You may be the next lucky winner.

The Agency is also partnering with the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Jaiz Bank and Sterling Bank to implement the Matching Fund Programme for Micro and Small Enterprises towards increasing access to finance.

This intervention is delivering credit, as a promotional mechanism to enhance enterprise output, competitiveness and job creation. Prospective beneficiaries can have access to loans between N2.1 million and N5.0 million.

This programme had been executed in the following States: FCT, Kaduna, Oyo, Plateau, Kano, Imo and Edo and are set for disbursement at the moment. While enterprises from Katsina, Kogi, Nasarawa,

Niger, Jigawa, Bauchi and Adamawa States have submitted their business plans and awaiting processing.

Very soon, the programme will commence in Ondo, Osun, Lagos, Cross River, Anambra, Delta and Enugu States.

The portal for the application will open by the end of August, 2022. All suitably qualified MSEs in the agribusiness sub-sector are to apply via the SMEDAN website www.smedan.gov.ng by clicking SMEDAN/STERLING matching fund programme icon.

Those of you that will go into agribusiness can also benefit from this initiative.

President Muhammadu Buhari administration has reportedly approved a waiver of N16.76tn in revenue to tax reliefs and concessions given to large companies between 2019 and 2021.

The beneficiaries of the tax reliefs and concessions included Dangote, Lafarge, Honeywell and 43 other major beneficiaries.

At least 46 companies had benefitted from various tax incentives and duty waiver schemes as of the end of 2021, while the requests of 186 companies were still pending, Pointblanknews.com learnt.

This is according to the tax expenditure statement (TES) reports in the Medium-Term Expenditure and Fiscal Strategy documents posted on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation.

The TES deals with revenue forgone on Company Income Tax, Value Added Tax, Petroleum Production Tax, and Customs Duty.

In the TES report, Federal Government had forgone revenue of N4.2tn in 2019 from two main sources, CIT and VAT.

The estimated amount of revenue forgone for CIT was N1.1tn while N3.1tn was for VAT.

“The most significant conclusion is the large size of Nigeria’s revenue forgone from just two of the main taxes, i.e., CIT and VAT. Nigeria’s non-oil revenue potential is at least twice its current collections.

“The preliminary estimate of revenue forgone from CIT incentives and concessions in 2019 is N1.1tn; for contrast, 2019 CIT collections was N1.6tn. The preliminary estimate of revenue forgone from VAT policy choices and compliance gaps is estimated to be NGN 3.1tn and could possibly be more. It is worth reiterating that revenue forgone from Customs Duty, Excises, Petroleum Production Tax, Personal Income Tax and concessions under the Oil and Gas Zones legislation is still to be computed,” The TES report read.

According to the TES report, the figure for revenue foregone would likely exceed N4.2tn if there were sufficient data, especially from Customs Duty, Excises, PPT, Personal Income Tax and concessions under the Oil and Gas Zones legislation.

The report also said by 2020, the figure rose to N5.8tn, with the majority of it coming from revenue forgone under VAT. A breakdown showed that N4.3tn was forgone under VAT; N457bn under CIT; N307bn under PPT, and N780bn under customs duty.

It was discovered that five countries accounted for about 86 per cent of total customs relief, with China accounting for nearly two-thirds of total relief granted. Netherlands, Togo, Benin and India were the other top sources of supplies benefitting from the reliefs.

In 2021, the total figure continued to rise, hitting N6.79tn, with revenue foregone on VAT accounting for most of it. A breakdown showed that N3.87tn was forgone under VAT, N548.40bn under CIT; N337.70bn under PPT; N1.84tn under customs duty; and N111.15bn under imports VAT.

The Nigerian government had to forgo a total of N16.79tn in tax reliefs for the three-year period, Customs duty waivers and concessions, according to an analysis by The PUNCH.

Under this figure, tax exemptions covered imported goods covered by diplomatic privileges, military hardware, fuels and lubricants, hospital and surgical equipment, aircraft (their parts and ancillary equipment), plant and machinery imported for use by companies in export processing zones, health and medical supplies to abate the spread of COVID.

Other exemptions were said to be included reliefs on the presidential initiative on COVID-19 supplies, Import Duty and VAT on commercial airlines.

It was also noted that five countries accounted for about 92 per cent of total Customs relief with China accounting for nearly half of the total relief granted. Singapore, Netherlands, Togo, Benin Republic and India were the other top sources of supplies benefitting from the reliefs.

They were beneficiaries of the pioneer status tax relief under the Industrial Development Income Tax Act with tax reliefs for a three-year period.

This was contained in the Q4 2021 PSI report released by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission.

The pioneer status is an incentive offered by the Federal Government, which exempts companies from paying income tax for a certain period. This tax exemption can be full or partial.

The incentive is generally regarded as an industrial measure aimed at stimulating investments in the economy.

The products or companies eligible for this pioneer status were said to be those that do not already exist in the country.

These companies are Dangote Sinotrucks West Africa Limited, Lafarge Africa Plc, Honeywell Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Jigawa Rice Limited, and Stallion Motors Limited.

Others are African Foundries Limited, Royal Pacific Group Limited, Kunoch Hotels Limited, Princess Medi Clinics Nigeria Limited, Medlog Logistics Limited, and Masters Liquefied Gas Limited.

Whereas, Nigeria’s budgetary situation is dire, as seen by low tax receipts. According to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the country generated N6.4tn in taxes in 2021. This amounts to approximately $15.433 billion.