Financial experts have commended the Federal Government for conducting another round of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) survey, to guide its policies for the sector.
The experts gave the commendation in separate interviews on Tuesday in Lagos.
The exercise, which is the fourth round of the MSMEs survey, began with a train-the-trainers workshop Aug. 16, followed with a field work on Aug. 21.
Prof. Ndubisi Nwokoma, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Analysis and Research (CEPAR) University of Lagos, said the MSMEs survey was critical to the development of the informal sector and the entire economy.
“The survey of MSMEs in Nigeria is very critical to the development of the informal or unorganised private sector as well as the entire economy.
“Particularly since the rapid growth of the economies of South East Asia is traceable to the growth of their MSMEs,” he said.
He suggested that the survey should first investigate whether the sector was growing or declining.
He said there was need to check whether there were visible transitioning developments taking place with micro firms becoming small and small firms becoming medium and so on.
“Are the challenges confronting the sector widening or being addressed by government policies?
“What of finance and access to credit? Job creation capabilities and linkages with large firms or multinational companies etc.
“How effective has government policy been generally concerning the sector? The findings can then be compared with the results of previous surveys.
“All of these should be investigated,” he said.
Mr Johnson Chukwu, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Cowry Asset Management Ltd., said gathering information through survey was an effective method to determine the success of what had been implemented and to initiate new policies.
“The exercise is a good development because without information you will achieve close to nothing. It is simply like, you are sitting in the dark.
“The survey will help the government to appropriately determine the success of what has been implemented and how,” he said.
He said the first thing that government should do was to assess the effectiveness of the scheme by looking at the economic standing of those who benefited from it.
“There is need to check whether their finances and businesses have improved. That will help the government to modify the scheme so as to make it more effective.
“After appraising those who have benefited from it and how effective it has been, you now appraise those who should benefit from it and have a census of those who should benefit from it,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer of Arvo Finance, Mr Ayotunde Bally, believes that the previous phases marked notable successes, which prompted the initiation of the fourth phase.
“It is a welcomed development; Unfortunately we have a culture of underutilising our data in Nigeria; for this phase I am hopeful that the necessary data will be properly collated and structured to solve the problems faced by SMEs.
“The SMES face regulatory barriers, which hinder new entrants; they lack capital to scale their businesses, also there is an increasingly high cost of operational needs like electricity, among others,” he said.
The survey which would cover 2019 and 2020 would be carried out in the 36 states and the FCT.
Three surveys had been successfully carried out in 2010, 2013 and 2017.
According to the Federal Government, in the fourth round, the concept of Nano enterprises (micro-enterprises), would be introduced.
The new sub-division (Nano) refers to those enterprises that have only one or two persons engaged in their operations, while the micro-enterprises are those enterprises with three to nine persons engaged in their operations.
The survey seeks to identify how enterprises coped during the coronavirus pandemic and what areas of support and intervention they require from government in post-COVID period.