 Your Excellency, the governor of Ebonia State, engineer David Umahi, Your Excellency, the deputy governor of Ebonia State, barista Eric Igwe, the right Honorable Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Honorable Francis Weifu and other members of the State House of Assembly present, the representative of the Chief Judge of Ebonia State. Your Excellency, the former governor of Ebonia State, Chief Matu Elichi, C-O-N, members of the Ebonia State Executive and Security Councils, state traditional rulers present, in particular Israel Highness Eze Chawz-Ukuma, the President Eze Chawz-Ukuma, then the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, can Rev. Father Dr. Abraham Wali and all other religious leaders present, heads of federal government prostitutes, all participants of the Ebonia State National Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Clinics, market women, market men, all of the entrepreneurs here for the distinguished ladies and gentlemen. I bring you all very warm greetings from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Mohammad Buhari. The President has asked me to congratulate you, the people of Ebonia, the souls of the nation, as well as the government of Ebonia State, for being the first state of all of our national MSMA clinics to have an MSMA clinic rerun. In other words, this is the second MSMA clinic. Some may recall that in the first edition, neither the governor nor I was able to attend. However, when the governor asked that we do this rerun and mentioned it again to me at the National Economic Council, we made sure that we got ready very quickly to organize a date because of the very important partnership between Ebonia State and the federal government. So, let me congratulate His Excellency the Governor for a job well done, not just in organizing this and I'll mention this as I speak, but also for the very always his mature collaboration at all times with the federal government and his leadership, which is very important, not just in the South East, but in the entire nation. I also thank you for the warm hospitality extended to me and members of my delegation. I'm encouraged by the number of outstanding MSMEs and individuals that I've had the pleasure to interact with alongside His Excellency the Governor this afternoon as I came. Based on what I've seen from the creative and passionate small businesses that are participating in this event today, I'm confident that the rapid economic transformation of Ebonia State and indeed Nigeria is imminent. Small businesses we all know are the engines of growth of our economy and this is not mere rhetoric, it is a proven fact which explains why the federal government has consistently worked to enable businesses and to create an enabling environment also for businesses to thrive, especially small businesses. These efforts are evident in our ease of doing business reforms which continue to be celebrated not just locally but internationally, especially in the World Bank ratings and many of us of course are familiar with the fact that in the last World Bank ratings we moved up very quickly again I think another 24 spaces and were declared to be one of the 10 best reforming economies in the world and I think that this is on account of the fact that we are committed to transforming the business space and the business environment. Aside from that, we have a whole new finance act. Many of us are familiar with the fact that the finance act 2020 introduces a wide range of tax incentives for small businesses and that act was signed into law on January 13th of this year. The principles in the finance act have given concrete expression to what we intend to achieve. Notably, the finance act completely exempts companies with a turnover of less than 25 million a year from paying any companies income tax at all. So for all small businesses, businesses that turnover less than 25 million a year you are not required to pay any tax whatsoever. For businesses between 25 million to 100 million a year they will now pay an income tax and companies income tax significantly lower than ever before. It's now at a lower rate of 20% from the previous 30% rate. So there's a 10% reduction in the companies income tax rate for companies that are turning over anywhere between 25 million a year to 100 million a year. In a similar vein, the act now makes it clear that services that are provided by microfinance banks are exempted from VAT. So any of the microfinance banks because they are lending to small businesses we now insist that by the law they are no longer required to pay VAT. So any of the microfinance banks now give their lending without the payment of any VAT. It's important to emphasize that small businesses must take full advantage of the opportunities offered by these MSME clinics just as the MSME clinics provide an opportunity for the federal government's regulatory agencies to let small businesses know about their requirements and their business procedures. MSMEs are also expected to use this opportunity to bring up the challenges that they face and look for possible solutions alongside the regulatory agencies. Today we've brought with us several of the regulatory agencies the Bank of Industry as one of the lending institutions the CAC, the Corporate Affairs Commission, NAFDAQ, SON and several of the other regulatory agencies and that's the whole idea of the clinics to bring these regulatory agencies right here to meet the small businesses so that by that interaction the symbiotic process of being able to see what the needs of the other are and what the requirements of each other are we can actually have a much better business environment and a much more fruitful relationship between our small businesses and several of the regulatory agencies. Just as some other states, some other state governments have done about which to urge the Eboni state government also to see how we can build on the achievements of these clinics by doing some of the following. The first is the creation of a one-stop regulatory shop for all of the regulatory agencies. Now what this means is that we'll have one office somewhere where our regulatory agencies can come and set up shop so that small businesses can see them here in Eboni state as opposed to going to Lagos or Apuja or wherever they are stationed at the moment. These enables our small businesses to interact easily with the regulatory agencies and the second is the organization of a state version of the MSME clinics. I know of course that there is already a very robust environment for small businesses here but I think it will help a great deal if we can have a state version which of course will involve the local governments of these MSME clinics and we can assure you that the regulatory agencies will be present. The third is that and this is by extension getting state regulatory agencies also to key into the spirit and letter of the MSME clinics. In other words to encourage the state regulatory agencies to partner with us, to partner with the federal government or regulatory agencies in order to work together to give a better business environment for small businesses. Some of the consistent feedbacks that we've received from MSMEs is that there's a high financial burden in buying equipment. Now these are equipments that they require for their businesses. So for example a cluster of tailors may require a special monogramming machine and of course one individual tailor may not be able to afford it and this is one of the problems that MSMEs have. Sometimes the equipment is so expensive. I know just from speaking to the state governor that he's bought several machines for MSMEs but what we want to achieve also is what is described as a shared facility which is a facility which allows clusters of businesses to come together to share expensive machines provided by the government in this case the federal government. So in collaboration with the state governments we are prepared to build these shared facilities where we will put in machines that are too expensive for individual businesses to buy so that business clusters of those who are manufacturing of those who are trading those who are making shoes those who are making bags and all that can benefit from the use of expensive machines which were put into these clusters. The other thing that we do about these clusters is that they are pre-certified by the relevant agencies so that we already register them with the federal government's regulatory agencies so that there is no need for the MSMEs to go through the process of registering again so we register the facilities so you don't need to go back to NAVDA to say we are just going to get certification for the facility. They will be pre-registered ahead of time. So distinguished ladies and gentlemen having heard and noted some of the other challenges facing small businesses we will prompt action on these issues for the next MSME clinics and update also the National Economic Council on some of the developments. I've heard already quite a few of the complaints and the complaints are the same in the complaints that small businesses have and some have to do with credit for getting sufficient credit especially low interest credit some have to do with purchase of machines some of what I've talked about many have to do with the problems of regulatory agencies and the time it takes to be able to register products either with NAVDAQ or SOM or any of these other regulatory agencies and I assure you that we will take great pains to ensure that all of these issues affecting MSMEs and including the overzealousness of government officials are addressed comprehensively in order to foster the growth and deepen economic inclusion was also strived to ensure that MSMEs stay informed of how federal government agencies can play an enabling role in advancing their businesses in the effort to solve challenges for and champion small businesses and small businesses across the country will continue to improve the initiatives that we have for supporting MSMEs some of these initiatives include one, the recently approved $20 million technology fund which is run by the Bank of Industry to support young innovators and encourage the technology ecosystem some of these young innovators and I've seen quite a few of them today I saw a gentleman who was building a helicopter already and some of these young innovators need assistance some of them are technology innovators they need assistance it is for these types of purposes that the Bank of Industry has this special fund for innovation and technology the second is the 90 billion Naira fund which is provided by this CBN through the National Microfinance Bank to agricultural-based MSMEs so this 90 billion Naira fund is for agricultural-based MSMEs and it is in when the CBN is disbursed through the National Microfinance Bank agricultural-based MSMEs are in the entire value chain not just farmers but all of those involved in the value chain those who are processing those who are converting products I've seen for example those who are making mushrooms those who are making plantain flower and the various other processes that are involved in the agroalite value chain all of them are eligible for the 90 billion fund which the CBN is rolling out now through the National Microfinance Fund the rollout also of NAVDAC's e-registration platform and a 75% cost reduction for product registration NAVDAC is now rolling out an e-platform for registration so those who want to register their products and there are so many I've seen so many products today that may not have NAVDAC numbers already NAVDAC is rolling out an e-platform for doing so and is also giving a discount of 75% of the charges so there's a great opportunity now for registering products at just about 25% of what it used to cost on the new NAVDAC e-platform there's also a partnership between SMEDAN and the corporate affairs commission to register MSMEs on mass and build a comprehensive database to help plan and coordinate and deploy policy responses to some of the challenges of our small businesses so this is also a platform which the CAC is working alongside SMEDAN with they want to register as many small businesses as possible in other words a once and for all company registration for a large number of small businesses the whole idea is to ensure that everybody who has a small business is able to set up a corporate entity because that way you are able to benefit from loans both local and international facilities and this is a project that SMEDAN and corporate affairs commission are running these are just a few of the initiatives to ensure an empowering and inclusive business environment for small businesses we as federal government will do our part but I believe that it's important that we emphasize that we must all work together both the federal state governments local governments as well as the civil society groups the business groups the chambers of commerce all of us have a bounding duty to ensure that we work together to ensure that small businesses thrive and that all of the work that we are each trying to do is coordinated for the benefit of our people including let me again congratulate the governor of the point state and his team for your focus on creating wealth for so many young and talented Nigerians who are here this is seen in the enormous investment that you have put into empowering small businesses including the creation of an office of human capital development and monitoring which we have seen at work especially in the organization of this particular clinic this is aside from the massive infrastructural developments going on here which is so evident everywhere we turn well done indeed congratulations so I thank you once again for your kindness and for the warmth of your welcome and I commend the participants for making for making the time to attend this clinic but also for ensuring that you have taken full advantage of all the opportunities that this clinic has presented from the quality of work that I've seen I have no doubt that the MSMEs from a point state will do well in the third edition of the National MSME Awards so I encourage you all to apply for these National MSME Awards and to participate in that process the last winner of the MSME Awards went home with a car and so if you are looking out to win a nice lovely saloon car I think you should apply immediately only MSMEs are allowed individuals are not allowed because I see some people who are looking they are not MSMEs some government officials who are not MSMEs are looking as if they want to win the car so only MSMEs private companies are allowed thank you very much and God bless you