 The SME sector, they are encouraging the new government to stimulate economic recovery through the strengthening of the small and medium enterprise sector, which are key to building the economy that is fair and just as they constitute a sustainable approach to tackling the developmental challenge that the economy is facing. I have Femi Boboyi joining me now on this discourse. Good morning to you. Femi, thanks for joining us on Business Insights. Good morning, thanks for having me. Yes, indeed our pleasure. Now Nigeria's small and medium enterprise are the backbone of the country's economy. Accounting for 96% of the country's business is 84% of its labour force and 48% of its GDP. What should government be doing structurally to encourage development? Yes, I thank you once again for having me and I think it's important to read out all of these things. And if you are talking about what needs to be done structurally to address this anomaly and take the advantage of the number of SMEs and their contributions over the years to the economy of this country. I think one of the first things that women begin to look at is realisation, what I call a national realisation, that something needs to change. It can't be business as usual. We have to look at how we do this business, so we can make it better. We also have to have a clear national road map where we are going to go, where the sector will have a priority advantage that we want to focus on. And then we need to begin to create new policies and then review existing ones to see what we are just going to do. Because you must understand that business is evolving and a lot of things are happening. And then we also have to look at the existing policies that we have, how we are implementing them. So we need to look at all of these things and see how we can adjust that. Lastly, that I would like to add to the ground that we put out the stock. I think we now need also to get our physical and nutrient policy rights and ensure that they are in alignment with the goals that we have written out for in this space of this business. So these are some of the things that I think that we should put aside and look at. And this kind of factor that helps us to structurally position the organisation and the government and the country right now for better SMU hospital results for the general people. Okay, now let's move on. Now unfortunately government funds meant to help small businesses often fail to reach their intended recipients. Instead the government SMU's programs often function as gateways for corruption, either in the form of misallocation of resources for political patronage or as outright investments of funds. How do we change this narrative? Fermi, can you hear us? Alright, we expect to get Fermi back online now. We have been looking at the issues in the SMU sector in Nigeria because it is really very appalling to see that the SMU sector drive the nation's economy. It's about accounting for 96% of general businesses in the country, 84% of its labour force and 48% of its GDP. There are so many structural problems and we have to start to address all of these issues if we want to drive development in that particular sector. Because the new government comes in May 2009 and they need to focus on some developmental strides in the small and medium scale enterprises and to ensure that we can actually talk about growth in the sector. Do we have Fermi back? Hello Fermi, if you can hear me now. I'm sorry. Okay, let's just conclude right now. Let's talk about what the incoming government can do to drive SMU development in the short and medium term. Okay, sorry about the phone network reception. So basically, I think what the government needs to do right now, first thing is to look at how can we begin to invest into training. Because the majority of the people that are doing business SMUs in Nigeria, one of the things we find out is that there's this huge knowledge gap that needs to be built, that needs to be breached. And then you realize that there are even more SMUs, more entrepreneurs in Nigeria than the rest of the country. And that means that's a plus. It shouldn't be a minus. They should now realize that what do we do to improve their capacity to do these businesses and run them effectively better than we are probably doing. And that's where training will suffice. Another thing that I think is convenient to look at is to encourage professional support for these SMUs. Another thing we also have to look at is investments. And we're talking about investment, we're talking about plans, loans, targeted at these SMUs. Also, tax reliefs that can help them more, taking some of the tax burden already on them. Which is one of the agenda of the e-submit business of the current regime. I think this is something that can also be fostered to ensure that these SMUs are better sucked. Another thing we also have to look at is the policy review and advisor, which I may try not to tell you all. There's a thing for us to understand the trend. What is happening with the way, because the way the business is being done right now is not the same with me. We tried to do some years ago. There are a lot of new instruments, new payment platforms that are coming up. And all of these are areas where young people are playing. So that means the laws, the revolution that will guide them to ensure that they do not just... They are not only doing that to make profit, but they will do that and they can help public as well. So there are policies that need to be put in place. There are some that exist and that need to be prioritized. And then there also we have to begin to look at how do we look at BSP to support government interventions to ensure that when government is putting finances and funds in the particular project, for example, they are giving grants and loans. Is there any one monitoring and monitoring to ensure that businesses are doing very well? Alright then, Femi, we have to let you go because of time. We have to let you go because of time. I'm afraid that's all that we can take. But once again, we appreciate your input that you have given us this morning. I guess there has been an Oluwa Femi Boboi managing partner at Paris Consultant. And we have been looking at, you know, the small and medium-scale enterprise development that we are setting on agenda for the incoming administration come May 29. And that's the size of the show for today. I am Justin Acadone. Many thanks for watching.