SMEs, not foreign investors are the engine room of economic development —Dogara

Contrary to beliefs in some quarters, Small And Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) are the catalysts of economic growth and not Direct Foreign Investments.

This is the thinking of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara.

He expressed this view recently when he received a delegation from the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce, Kaduna State Chapter in his office.

He also argued that any country that fails to provide economic opportunities for its citizens is doomed.

“We have recognized that SMEs are the engine room of economic growth. Most times we are bound to think more in the line of more foreign direct investment or in terms of corporations working in Nigeria, but from my little knowledge of someone who studied International and Commercial Law, I have come to realize that corporations really just encourage the flow of wealth within citizens of the corporations, and ultimately the money is repatriated elsewhere.

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“SMEs however remain the engine room because they create wealth that remains within the system, but the corporations just suck the wealth for the people of the corporation for them to just ship it out of the country. That is why SMEs are the real catalysts of economic revolutions in the financial market”, he stated.

He said this is why the legislature has continued to engage the executive to pass laws that would bring about ease of doing business in the country.

“This was the subject of engagement between us and the Executive. You
know that our own is to make Laws and we have been trying to do that through the ease of doing business. We have moved that further on the ranking, so that therefore means that you can talk to whoever in
whatever part of the World and they will be able to take you serious now knowing that once they come to Nigeria they will have
collaboration, cooperation of all the Agencies that are involved in either registering businesses, facilitating business start-ups and etc.”

The Speaker assured that the National Assembly will continue to provide legislative support that will create enabling environment for entrepreneurs.

“We will continue to do that and I know that you have our back, in the nature of job you do. Whatever you do, even if it involves some kind of tinkering with our Laws, you are free to suggest, let us see what we can
do”.

Speaking on the North East and the plight of the Internally Displaced Persons, Dogara said the National Assembly has provided legal and enabling framework that will guarantee enduring measures to address
the devastation in the area.

“Then on the issue of the Northeast, it certainly is close to my heart, you know as Legislators we represent the people and the devastation in that region is simply too much, and it was a considered
opinion that Ad-Hoc measures may not be able to address the scale of devastation in that region. We needed a Legal and Enabling Framework within which we can kick-start the rebuilding of that region.

“It is not something that we can recover from in the next five-ten years. So if we were to leave the approaches to Government interventions, along the line any leader that comes along may say we don’t want to do this again and that’s the end”.

 

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