Oyo State Govt. to create credible data base of SMEs

Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State said on Tuesday that his administration would create a credible data base of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) to further develop the state.

Ajimobi said this at a stakeholders meeting with heads of local government administration from the 33 local government areas at the State Ministry of Trade and Investment, Ibadan.

The governor was represented by Mr Yinka Fatoki, the Executive Secretary, Bureau of Investment Promotion/Public Private Partnership (BIP/PPP).

He said that the essence of the programme was to create the atmosphere for small businesses to thrive.

“We have rolled out several policies in the last four years for businesses to thrive, among which was the N16 billion window with Bank of Industry (BOI) and N2bn with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for SMEs,’’ he said.

Ajimobi said that there was no way the nation could close its eyes to SMEs, saying Nigeria must cease being a monolithic economy in order to get out of its economic misfortune.

Also, Mr Amos Ogunwale, Senior Research Fellow, Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), said that the state government’s action “was a right step in a right direction’’.

Ogunwale said that the feasibility of Oyo State assuming a key position as economic power and a catalytic hub for development had become a major concern of government with the dwindling oil revenue.

He said that the state government had taken appropriate steps, having constituted a working and implementation committee consisting of several agencies to work on the assignment.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that among the agencies constituted are NISER, Oyo State Bureau of Statistics, Oyo State Ministry of Economic Planning and Nigeria Investments Promotion Council (NIPC).

Others are the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the project was to be anchored by the office of the state’s Head of Service.

Ogunwale said that a pilot survey of the project would take place by the second week of January while the main survey was scheduled for the second week of February in 2016.

He said that six local governments – Ibadan South-West, Ibadan North-East, Ibarapa North, Surulere, Egbeda and Iwajowa – had been selected for the pilot scheme, while the main survey would hold in the 33 local governments.