Prince John Karunwi, Chairman, Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASMEs), Oyo State chapter, has lauded President Bola Tinubu’s swift move to address challenges in Nigeria economy.
Tinubu, had in his inauguration speech on Monday said he would review the Naira Redesign Policy, Monetary Policy and ensure a unified exchange rate.
Karunwi said, if the president could address the issues mentioned in his address and reduce the cost of production and raw materials, the nation’s economy would thrive again.
He said that the production sector had yet to recover from the effects of COVID-19, the Russian War on Ukraine, coupled with the local factors inhibiting production.
Karunwi said that a large number of MSMEs were dying daily compounded by other factors like poor electricity supply, multiple taxation and interest rate.
“We are just trying to survive as the cost of production is very high, the overhead cost is overwhelming and it has a lot of effects on us.
“When the last administration talked about the ease of doing business, we were excited, thinking things would be relieved that MSMEs would now thrive.
“But, from the various government’s policies, it had been so hard for the MSMEs. It has been a very hard time for us.
“We believe that the new government would be MSMEs friendly and look at the actual ease of doing business, by looking at the logistics and cost of doing business in Nigeria, as it is killing the MSMEs,” the chairman said.
He said that many MSMEs operators were in debts when the naira redesign policy was implemented.
According to him, they were just selling their goods and using them to feed, not being able to buy back their goods, as it was a total loss.
Karunwi urged the president to look into the cost of registering business with the Corporate Affairs Commission and NAFDAC, which he said had been at a cut-throat price.
“For some of us in production, someone that just got a loan of N50,000 to start a disinfectant business, where will the person get the high cost of money that NAFDAC is asking?
“How will he scale up, because such goods can not be showcased anywhere without NAFDAC approval.
“All these regulatory operators are giving us a lot of trouble.
“For CAC, you will need about N200,000 to register your business and every year you are to pay annual returns; before, it was N1000, but now it has been increased.
“The new government should help us look at this and the interest rate on loans and make loan facilities available for the production sector, not one that they would promise to give a certain amount and then reduce it,” he said.
Also, a financial expert, Mr Tunji Adepeju, commended the new president for his move on naira notes.
Adepeju said that the new notes were hard to come by which made having the two currencies run at legal tender helpful to the nation’s economy until the new notes would be in abundance in circulation.
He said that continuous increase in interest rates were in line with the policies of other developed countries battling inflation.
On the exchange rate, he said, “We need to really harmonise and bring together stakeholders, chambers of commerce, industry and others to work things out without Nigerians sabotaging the policies of the government, especially the exchange rate as lots of people kept making huge money from it.”
