By Kunle Oshobi
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 59 million Nigerians
representing 84.02% of Nigeria’s total labour force work in the Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) sub-sector of the economy. This effectively makes the sector the biggest employer of labour in the Nigerian economy and where we need to focus on if we are serious about growing the economy. However, despite the huge number of Nigerians employed in this sector, many more Nigerians remain unemployed with our unemployment rate currently hovering around 33% and many more of those that are employed being actually under employed and unable to maximize their potentials.
Analysis by Statista further reveals that while we have an estimated 41,469,947 micro enterprises in the country, there are also 71,288 small enterprises and 1,793 medium scale enterprises operating in the country with a vast majority of the micro enterprises being one-man businesses.
Various studies however reveal that the biggest challenge being faced by most MSMEs in the country is access to capital to finance their operations and the prohibitive cost of the capital in the rare occasion that it becomes available.
It is also a fact that if we are to grow our economy, create jobs for our people and pull Nigerians out of poverty, we must stimulate economic activity and increase productivity within the economy. This essentially is what the Atiku stimulus plan intends to achieve as it will directly be addressing the single biggest problem that is inhibiting productivity within the Nigerian economy by providing concessionary loans to large numbers of existing and potential entrepreneurs to help finance their business growth.
To fund the stimulus plan if elected into office, Atiku intends to use the proceeds from the sales of the refineries which have now become a drainpipe costing the government over N100 billion annually to maintain even though they are not producing any fuel. By so doing, Atiku will be converting a liability which is costing us billions of Naira to maintain every year into a resource that can be used to finance economic growth and positively impact the lives of Nigerians.
In addition to that, part of the money saved from the removal of fuel subsidy which is estimated to cost the federal government $15 billion this year alone will also be redirected to fund the stimulus plan. Effectively speaking the plan aims to redirect funds from consumption activities (subsidy) to
productive activities (MSMEs financing) thereby killing two birds with one stone unlike those who bandy slogans of moving Nigeria from consumption to production without any effective plan to achieve such objectives.
In implementing the stimulus plan, unlike the “Trader money” charade which turned to be a vote buying racket, the funds will be disbursed through competent financial institutions where the funds can be professionally managed and processes put in place to ensure that the funds are not abused. With this move, the Atiku stimulus plan would also have ignited a credit culture within the Nigerian economy and help deepen the financial services industry in the country as the risk appetite of our financial institutions will increase based on the implementation of the plan.
Various studies have also revealed that Nigeria can double her GDP within six to seven years if we can develop a thriving credit system in the country in which credit facilities will be available to most entrepreneurs and consumers as this will unlock a lot of potentials within the economy, stimulate an increase in demand and supply within the economy and translate to more jobs and income for Nigerians.
With the $10 billion stimulus plan, as many as five million Nigerian entrepreneurs could benefit from the loans in the first instance and if an average of just two jobs are created per beneficiary, that means that ten million Nigerians can be taken off the labour market in the short term. Other benefits of the stimulus plan will include human capacity development programs to train beneficiaries on how to manage their businesses better and ensure that the funds disbursed are well managed and that they become more productive.
With increased productivity, not only will the entrepreneurs earn more and put them in a better position to grow their businesses, government also stands to earn more in terms of taxes which will further enable them to enhance their service delivery to Nigerians.
The good news is that this stimulus will spill over to all sectors of the Nigerian economy and affect everyone positively as the increased purchasing power that Nigerians will collectively have as a result of pulling millions out of the unemployment market will mean more patronage for existing business owners that didn’t benefit directly from the stimulus plan and more income for their workers. Less people will also resort to crime when more jobs are available thus making our country safer for all.
With the implementation of the Atiku $10 billion stimulus plan along with other policies like the Atiku plan to incentivize the power sector as was done in the telecoms sector to attract more private sector investors into the industry along with his plans to ensure that the private sector becomes the engine of growth of the Nigerian economy, the average Nigerian will be the biggest beneficiary as this will translate into more jobs and higher income for all Nigerians. It is certainly in our enlightened best interest to support the Atiku plan to #RecoverNigeria by joining hands to vote him in as the next president of our beloved country.
Kunle Oshobi is a spokes-person for the Atiku/Okowa campaign organization
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