 The Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otsumbah Adini Yadibayo. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Industry, Mr. Olukayo Dequiton. The Imaging Director of Proctor and Gamble Nigeria, Mr. Adil Fahat. Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Investment Commission, Mrs. Yawande Sadiku. Senior Vice-Chairman of Africa Standard Chatter Bank, Mrs. Bola Adishola. Chief Executive Officer of the House of Tara International, Mrs. Tara Feladurotoio. All the panellists, honoured guests, participants, ladies and gentlemen, it really is a great pleasure to be with you this morning at the Proctor and Gamble Bank of Industry SME Academy. Let me begin by thanking Proctor and Gamble and the BOI for the invitation to speak to you all today and also for investing in such a necessary event. This administration is, as you've heard already, very extensively from the Honourable Minister of Industry Trade and Investment is determined to support small businesses because we know that this is the way of growth and prosperity for our people and that support is now even more necessary in the wake of the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and is exciting to see and very encouraging to see private sector partners who are just as committed to doing the same. So the federal government believes wholeheartedly that SMEs or rather MSMEs are the bedrock of our economy and we are constantly aiming to support innovative ideas and interventions that can help MSMEs grow and in turn grow our economy and create more employment opportunities. I'm often in a position such as this where I'm asked to speak to business owners and entrepreneurs about the value of their businesses to the economy. At such events we often remind the business owners that according to the National Bureau of Statistics, MSMEs contribute 48% of national GDP. They account for 96% of all businesses and 84% of employment. We also remind them that there are about 17.4 million MSMEs in the country accounting for 50% of our industrial jobs and nearly 90% of all jobs in the manufacturing sector and I could go on and on. But today I want to go beyond those statistics. Indeed, I'd like to unpack some of this data with the aim of explicitly highlighting the significance of the assertion that MSMEs are indeed the bedrock of the Nigerian economy. While I'm aware that this event relates to an MSME academy, you may have noticed that I'm choosing to refer of course to MSMEs. This is deliberate. Of the 17 million odd MSMEs that we have in the country, 99.8% of them are classified as micro enterprises and micro enterprises employ less than 10 people and typically have assets valued at less than 5 million Naira. Enterprises that employ less than 50 people are classified as small and those that employ between 50 and 200 are classified as medium enterprises. So if 99.8% of our MSMEs are actually micro businesses, a number which I imagine could be higher still given the size of our informal sector, then we cannot afford to drop that first M in the MSMEs, especially not in a conversation about the importance for the economy. I wanted to say in addition to this is that entrepreneurs with the lowest turnovers are the most vulnerable to economic shocks like those that the pandemic has endangered and we must support them. Allow me to paint this picture even further. An overwhelming 76% of micro entrepreneurs only have secondary school certification or even less. So we can assume that most of the business owners in our economy are not necessarily sufficiently exposed to formal education and are likely experiencing sizable skill gaps. While increasing access to and improving the quality of traditional education is important, events such as this one and programs such as this one offer an opportunity for business owners to acquire skills, especially vocational and management skills that may otherwise only have been available through traditional education routes. I just want to mention here and many are familiar with the work that the Bank of Industry supported, which was the government program called the Government Enterprises and Empowerment Program under which we had the trader money scheme, the farmer money scheme, the market money scheme. One of the very interesting things about that scheme and again the Bank of Industry deserves all the commendation for the organization of that entire scheme and also the enumeration of the very, very many petty traders who are involved in that scheme. But something that the trader money scheme showed us, first is that that bottom of the pyramid of the commercial value chain, of the trade and sales value chain in Nigeria is a crucial part of the entire equation. So these traders are those who have their table tops or who carry their wares around in trays. Many of them are the last mile traders for fast moving products such as the ones that Prokran Gamble manufacture and several other major fast moving product manufacturers. So these micro-entrepreneurs who are traders and who are petty traders, some of whose inventory does not even exceed 3,000 naira are the ones that were targeted by the government and the Bank of Industry in that trader money scheme. And we found that it was exceedingly empowering for these small entrepreneurs because they were able to receive credit to continue to do their businesses and when they paid back the 10,000 naira, they then got 15,000 naira. When they paid back 15,000 naira, they were able to get 20,000 naira and incrementally in that way. The most fascinating aspect of that program was the fact that there was a really a very high rate of fidelity to the agreement to pay back. Many of these individuals actually paid back and many were getting the second tranches of their loads. I think that one of the very critical things that we have to keep examining and keep looking back at is how to continuously empower that last mile, that bottom of the pyramid in the trade chain. And I think that schemes such as the trader money and other such programs, including those that are sponsored by the private sector, deserve every push and deserve every encouragement. But thinking beyond just this event as a government and as policy makers, we must take factors such as this into account. If we are convinced that MSMEs truly are the engines of the growth of our economy, one of the most important granular details of our data on micro-businesses, however, is the fact that when we look at micro-enterprises, the area where we have the higher skills shortage is in information and communication. The iron is not lost on me that I'm sharing this on a Zoom call and in an area where so much has been forced to move online. It's an extremely important consideration if we generally believe that these kinds of businesses are the bedrock of our economy. How do we continue to offer accessible opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs to upscale and to close these sizable skills gaps that are preventing their growth? As a private sector, as business owners, who do have the chance to be at such an event and invest in your knowledge in this way? So the real question is how to reach the largest numbers, many of whom of course cannot participate in a Zoom call for obvious reasons that they simply do not have the facilities to be able to do so. But it's possible to translate a lot of what we have today and a lot of the programs that we have into formats and into platforms that are more easily accessible to the largest numbers of our people. And I'm sure that this way of actually being able to retail these trainings further to those lower levels is something that the BOI Academy, the BOI and P&G and BOI Academy should take a good look at. And I'm sure that they can come up with all manner of very creative ideas on how to reach that last mile with these very useful trainings. I implore you not only to maximise the learning opportunities that come with this program but also to find other ways to share what you learn with those who aren't able to be here. This means that as a government, we also have to get creative about how we engage our nation's most vulnerable businesses, especially given the current crisis. The next sustainability plan, as you know, sets out a number of ways to do exactly that. And we've already heard from the Honourable Minister about the survival fund offering payroll support to small businesses in order to safeguard at least 1.3 million jobs and offering interest-free credit for daily paid and self-employed artisans. Almost 50% of micro-businesses are owned by young people, Nigerians under the age of 35. So it's encouraging to note that young Nigerians made up 82% of payroll support scheme recipients and they have reported that for the first time, and they've reported that for the very first time in a long time, Nigerian MSMEs are satisfied with the transparent and seamless implementation of this federal government scheme. And this is evident in the reopening of the registration portal, where at the beginning of the scheme, due to the sort of skepticism that generally tends to attend these sorts of programs, the portal opened for six weeks and we received then 463,000 applications. But once the implementation of the scheme began and the portal reopened, within one week we received 892,000 applications. The whole purpose of the fund, as you know, is to ease some of the effects of the pandemic on our economy's most vulnerable businesses and we received an impressive number of testimonials from beneficiaries. The payroll support, as you've heard, pays business owners between 30 and 50,000 Naira. To some entrepreneurs in attendance today, this may seem smaller than you personally may have hoped to receive. But I began this speech urging you to consider the perspective of micro-enterprises, which make up 99.8% of our nation's millions of MSMEs, and yet their size makes them so vulnerable to economic shocks. Consider that perspective. In conclusion, it's essential for us to acknowledge how important MSMEs are and we continuously do so. But in order for us to effectively target our efforts in their growth and in order for micro-businesses to become small, for small businesses to become medium, we must approach this data with some nuance. To the entrepreneurs who are here today, I hope that this has put into context the value of the opportunity that this MSME Academy is. Once again, let me thank Procter & Gamble and the Bank of Industry for hosting this event. They've shown consistent commitment to our local talents and the broader MSME development in the country. And we are truly appreciative of all their efforts. I hope that you all enjoy the rest of the program. Thank you very much. God bless you.