Our DG, Alhaji  Muhammad Nadada Umar has stressed the need for dedicated banks to fund small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria to ease their financial difficulties which hinder their maximum capacity to grow.

Alhaji Umar noted this while receiving a team from the Deutcshe Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a German organization working on a new private-sector development programme aimed at improving the access of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to financial services.

The development programme, named Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria (SEDIN), also aims to foster employment within MSMEs through an improved business-enabling environment.

Alhaji Umar, who noted the similarities in the mandates of SMEDAN and SEDIN said that while funding posed the greatest challenge to the development of MSMEs in the country, SMEDAN remained committed to helping them surmount all challenges in the course of their growth and development through partnership with donor agencies, financial institutions and other government agencies that could make positive impact in the sustainability of the MSMEs.

Earlier at the interactive session of the two bodies which held at the SMEDAN Headquarters in Abuja, the visiting Advisors from GIZ, Mr Alexander Speed and Mr Klaus Reiner, in company of the Local Economic Development Coordinator, Margaret Joshua expressed excitement at the prospect of a possible collaboration with SMEDAN, adding that the objectives of the Cooperation programme would have a huge impact on the nation’s economy with the support of the Federal Government.
Levi Anyikwa, Assistant Director (Corporate Affairs)