 The National President of the Association of Micro-Entrepreneurs of Nigeria, Prince Xavier Eche, said the Business Member Organization BMO has over 20,000 membership across the nation and findings have been made by stakeholders to ascertain who, purportedly, that benefited from the 7-billionaire allocation to micro-entrepreneurs but not gave positive response. Amen is demanding to know the names and companies of micro-entrepreneurs the 7-billionaire was allocated. It's said the only real recognized micro-entrepreneurs association is the five which makes up BMO including Aspern, Mann, Amen, Nassemi and Nase and none has benefited so far. The National President of Amen, Prince Xavier Eche, joins me now to share more insights. Good morning to you, Prince Xavier, thanks for joining us on Business Insights. Good morning, Prince Xavier Eche. Yes, it is indeed our pleasure. From my intro, you talked, you convened a press briefing about two weeks ago and you were talking about a purported 7-billionaire that was meant for SMEs that's made an claim to have distributants to your membership or small businesses. So far you've seen that you're not aware of this. Can you share more insight concerning that? Okay, thank you very much. Actually the news from this medium that 7-billionaire have been given to micro-entrepreneurs to me and to us in the industry is since very shocking because we are very surprised that how such money we're able to release without the stakeholders being carried along. So to us, it is just another way of taking money using micro-entrepreneurs as a step-boat of looting. So to us, it sounds as very surprising. All right, so far before now, how has the relationship, Prince, can you hear us? All right, we'll take a break and see if we can reconnect with them for a safer future. We seem to be having some connectivity issue because we really need to know how the relationship has been between SMED and then of course there's small businesses and know how we can move forward in terms of funding of small businesses in the country. It's still business insight and plus TV Africa, we'll take a quick break and hopefully we'll join Prince SAFEHA in a moment and stay with us. All right, welcome back. It's still business insight and plus TV Africa. Before we took that break, we were speaking with Prince SAFEHA and we're looking at small business funding in the country and the role in actions of SMED and Prince SAFEHA, thanks for staying with us. Thank you. All right, so I lost you at a big time. I wanted to find out the relationship between this small business that's a man, a man, a husband and a semen and a semen over time. You know, what's the relationship been like in terms of getting this grant and funding for small businesses? Actually, it's in Nigeria, as I always said, if I have such a, this type of opportunity. SMED is Nigeria. You can see that most of the grants, the federal government have claimed to be given to micro-interpreters. Actually, the money is being released to the appropriate people, but the problem is the people that O2 is giving out this money to people like us, the micro-interpreters are not giving it to us. So as I always said, they are giving it to the ghost interpreters. It's not getting to us. Because if it's getting to us, the problem that Nigeria is facing, the issue of rising costs of dollar and everything is attributed to a non-efficiency of the micro-interpreters in Nigeria. And what is the cost? So the cost is the micro-interpreters have been neglected over the time. So the money is not getting to people like us. So that is the problem. And that is why when this issue of a lose from SMED and came up, why are you surprised? How can you give 7 billion to a group without them knowing? All right. So as it is right now, what excites from asking for the probe of SMED and what have you done over the years in terms of maybe having meetings with the federal government or the Ministry of Trade and of course investments so that these businessmen or entrepreneurs can actually get direct. Since over the years, issues of financial infractions have come to bear in comes to disbursement of these fundings. Yes. Before that, we have bring most of our options, some intervention, some ideas to the federal government. We have told them that this money is of putting this money online. Because you are applying for a loan online. We don't know actually if we are successful or not. The adverse we are giving to government is they should keep this money in commercial banks where every entrepreneur can go. All right. There will be an entrepreneur decks where we can go there and they can be able to assess us. All right. Okay. When they go there, they can be able to know through our data if really we are entrepreneurs or not. But in a situation whereby it's been applied online, there's nobody that you cannot be able to hold one or two persons responsible if the money is not being given to us. So that is the problem. All right. Okay. So just recently too, the BOI was in the news. And it said something about also releasing funds to small businesses. Are you aware of this funding? And so far, how have small businesses been able to benefit from the BOI in terms of funding? Let me tell you the truth. BOI, but to us as micro entrepreneurs, we are forgetting about BOI. Because BOI are not for... We are talking about small business. If you go to BOI, for instance, for loan, the condition they are giving to multinational companies, example, Dan Cote and the other... It's the same condition they are giving to people like us. People who are going to... For loan of $2 million, $5 million. It's the same condition. And none of us can be able to meet this condition. And after that, it's back of industry. Most times. So to write or bring into the timeline the people that are giving this money, who are they giving this money? If they are giving this money to micro entrepreneurs, Nigeria will not be depending on foreign products. So Nigeria will not be depending on foreign products. So this money, I'm not getting... Back of industry, I've challenged them to have that number. And I've called them anytime I'm ready to face them. All right, on the national division or anywhere. They want to let them come and bring the facts, the figures, the names, and the addresses of the people that are giving the money. All right, everyone is aware of the economic issues and the economic challenges that is plaguing the country right now with food hike everywhere and commodities generally on the rise in terms of prices. Now specifically, how would you say the economic issues, the inflation have impacted directly on small businesses? The inflation we are talking about. See, Nigeria, the problem we are having is man-made problem. The policies, the government policies. I want to tell you that go and do your investigation very well. For the past three years, Nigeria have lost almost 48% of their local manufacturers because of inflation. For instance, there's a chemical we are buying for 14,000 in 2015. Today that chemical is 148 hour naira. So if a man is doing business with 148 hour naira and there is no financial intervention, what it means? That person will close off. We have lost most entrepreneurs because of inflation and what is the cost of this inflation? The border or the wolf. The government keep on increasing the tariff, increasing the amount that the importers are using to clear their goods in the world. For instance, for three, they have increased the money in the world for three times now. The last time it was 9.5 million. So today it's about 100 million. We're going to clear one container. What the government will do in order to save us the remaining 52% of micro-intergrars not to die is add the wolf. They should reduce the tariff, the money they are using to clear goods, especially chemicals, machineries, and every other thing that consign micro-interpreneurs. If they can be able to reduce the cost of clearing goods in the wolf, the price will come down naturally. All right, Prince, I'm afraid there's as much as we have time for on the show this morning, but we must say a very big thank you to you for all of this insight that you have mentioned today. And of course, this issue of smirking, we just trust that the issue will be nipped in the board so small businesses can actually get this funding and not just on the pages of newspapers and television like we usually hear. Thank you so much once again for your time. Thank you for having me. On the other side of the show, my guest has been Prince H.A., the National President of Amin, and I am Justin Akadene. Many thanks for being a part of the show. I'll see you again next time. Bye for now.