 I bring you the very warm greetings of President Mohammad Buhari, who has also asked me to congratulate the governor and the people of Nassau State for hosting this 26th edition of the MSME clinics, the National MSME clinics, and the first for the year 2020. I'd like to thank His Excellency the Governor, Governor Abdulai Suli, and the entire government and people of Nassau State for the very warm welcome and the hospitality extended to me and to my delegations since we arrived here. I'd also like to thank His Royal Highness, the Emmy of Lafayette, who had hosted us very warmly earlier, and I'm now the proud recipient of the Royal Horse, which I intend to take with me all the way back to Abuja. Your Excellency, it is my sincere and fervent wish that your clarity of vision and demonstrated passion for business and for the progress of this state will enable Nassau State to become truly the economic powerhouse of your dreams. Last October, you and I and the Under Minister of State Science and Technology visited a farm in Nassau State, which grew from three hectares with one and a half million naira in 2017, but now occupies 3,000 hectares and is worth one billion naira and employing over 300 people. What that tells us is that great things are happening here in Nassau State and that with the support and partnerships that you're creating, greater things will happen. Our expectation is that this 26th edition of the National MSME Clinics, holding here in the state, will provide the further impetus that will give this whole process of creating a business-friendly environment that will grow the state, all of what it needs to actually come to fruition. From what I've seen from the creative and passionate small businesses that are participating in this clinic, I'm confident that the economic transformation of Nassau State is well underway. I want to emphasize that it is important for small businesses to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the MSME Clinics. Just as the MSME Clinics provide an opportunity for the federal government's regulatory agencies to inform small businesses about their requirements as well as business procedures, MSMEs are also expected to bring up their own challenges and their problems for possible solutions at this clinic. This is why it is described as a clinic. It's the same as a patient going to a hospital complaining about whatever their problems are and expecting a solution. It is through this kind of symbiotic relationship that we'll be fulfilling the key purposes of organizing these MSME Clinics across Nigeria. I'll also urge the Nassau State government, in fact the governor has said as much, to build on the achievements of this clinic by considering one, the creation of a one-stop regulatory shop for MSMEs in a suitable location in Nassau State. Now this is an office that would house NAFDAQ, SON, the Corporate Affairs Commission and other regulators bringing them close to the MSMEs in the state. All that you will be required to do is to provide the facility and the regulatory agencies will provide the rest. Second, the organization of state versions of the MSME Clinics in various local governments of the state. This will help the state's regulatory agencies also to key into the spirit and letter of the MSME Clinics. Already I see that the Nassau State government has incubation centers for growing business initiatives. This is excellent indeed and it will work very well with some of the initiatives of the MSME Clinics. On our part at the federal level we are also keen on establishing shared facilities, shared facilities and this willingness we've established about two so far and we intend to establish them across the country wherever we find a willing state. The purpose of these shared facilities is to provide MSMEs with world-class business equipment in various commercial clusters. Also for example, a shoe manufacturing cluster. We will provide equipment that would ordinarily have been too expensive for an individual shoe manufacturer to buy for his own business. We will buy the equipment so that many of the shoemakers or the shoe manufacturers will be able to use that same facility because each of them of course or the individuals will not be able to provide their own. With such an arrangement in place MSMEs have spared the financial burden of having to buy their own equipment especially the expensive equipment in order to be able to do business. Where possible such shared facilities will be run on an economically sustainable basis and we would expect that we will be able to pre-certify all of those shared facilities so that the regulatory agencies that the small businesses need to go to wouldn't have to bother about that because we would have pre-certified them ahead of setting up the shared facilities. The inspiration for the establishment of shared facilities arose from interactions with the MSMEs during past national editions of the MSME clinics. Apart from the challenges that they face from regulatory agencies another recurring problem is that small businesses across the country are not able to access production and operating equipment and this is where we thought it would be important to set up some of these shared facilities for their benefit. Let me say also that the federal government is aware of the various regulatory challenges facing small businesses and in some cases even the harassment and extortion by government functionaries at different levels will be working within the ambit of the National Economic Council to address some of these issues and we've been addressing some of these we've actually raised some of these issues at the National Economic Council. For meanwhile I can give the example of how several agencies like the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Bank of Industry have taken the opportunity of the clinics to improve their offerings to small businesses. We're also working assiduously with the leadership of NAFDAQ, SON and CAC to see that MSMEs get faster, cheaper and more efficient services from those agencies. The era of the expensive and time-consuming NAFDAQ certification will soon be over. I'm sure that you're also well aware of the federal government's fresh initiatives at creating a more favorable environment for small businesses. The first is in the gradual reduction in interest rates through some of the modifications that we are seeing that the CBN has done on restrictions to access to Treasury bills and the modifications to the open market operations of the CBN which has brought fixed income yields down to between 5% and 6%. That has helped greatly in reducing interest rates for commercial loans. So we expect to see that interest rates for commercial loans will grow down gradually and very soon we might even be able to get sub 10 by being able to get single digit interest rates for commercial loans. The second are the new incentives under the Finance Act. The Act, that's the Finance Act which as you know the President just signed into law exempts small companies with a turnover of 25 million a year. Any company that has a turnover of less than 25 million a year is now exempted from paying income tax, company's income tax. So any company, the small companies, all of the small companies do not have to pay cooperation tax because their turnover is less than 25 million. Companies that have a turnover of between 25 million and 100 million a year will now pay company's income tax at a lower rate of 20%. That is almost 10% off what the rate is to be. Another business friendly provision which is in the Finance Act is a guarantee of tax credits to companies for early filing of their tax returns. So if you're a company, especially a mid-range company that has to pay tax and you file your tax returns early, you can actually get as much as a 2% discount on your tax just for filing your tax returns early. Larger companies get 1% discount on their tax or tax credit. Perhaps the most publicized aspect of the Finance Act is the new VAT rate, the value-added tax rate, which has gone up from 5% to 7.5%. Many people have said, oh, this is a higher tax burden on the consumer, and of course it has implications for those who are trading as well. But we must remember that this is still one of the lowest. In fact, it is the lowest VAT rate in the whole of Africa. Although it is true, for instance, that Ghana has reduced its VAT rate. Ghana's VAT was 15%. They reduced it to 12.5%. Ours is 7.5%. It's also important to mention that companies, again the small companies, MSMEs, with a turnover of less than 25 million, do not have to register for VAT. In other words, their businesses are not compatible. They don't have to register for VAT. So that way, it is possible that the government has worked out a way of not creating any extra burden for small and medium-sized companies. In addition to that, in order to reduce the impact of the VAT increase on consumers, several basic items, such as food, drugs, and educational items, are exempted from VAT. So there is no payment of VAT on food, on drugs, and on educational items. And then there is another upside to the increase in VAT. And this is that additional revenue will now go to the states from VAT. So the states now will be able to earn additional revenue. Now that revenue is so important for the states so that they can do, among other things, at least begin to pay the new minimum wage. This way, it will improve consumer spending as well, and it works very well for everyone. So I think that despite the increase in VAT, there are so many inbuilt advantages for small businesses. Now I believe that small businesses can take advantage of the new provisions of finance that in order to make their businesses even grow better. In closing, I wish to congratulate again the Nassarau State Government for organizing such a successful MSME clinic and also to commend all the participating MSMEs for making use of the opportunities given to them by this clinic. I urge all of the MSMEs that are present to ensure that they present themselves during the this year's third national MSME awards. This year's national MSME awards, I want you, urge you to participate in it, present your products for the award. The prizes this year are bigger and better than last year. Of course, the competition for such rewards will also be cleaner. The intention this year is to have an MSME week with several activities climaxing the MSME awards. The President is determined to create a Nigeria in which small business owners are nurtured and encouraged to thrive and prosper. Our first responsibility as regulatory agencies of the government is to support their group or enable them as best as possible. So I'd like to thank the Governor again and all of you for this very successful outing and to look forward to hearing about the success stories that emerge from this activity. At this point, I also have a very pleasurable duty to perform, which is to inaugurate the Nassarau State Enabling Business Environment Council. As you know, Mr. President, President Muhammad Buhari had established the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council to do all that would be necessary to ensure that businesses have the best environment to flourish and to prosper. I'm privileged to chair Pebeck, which is the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, and we have Dr. Jumuake Oduwale here, who is a special advisor to the President and who is also the Secretary of Pebeck. But the work of creating an enabling business environment cannot be done without the states. The states do the very best when they also set up their own enabling business environment council. And this is what Governor Abdulai Suley has done. He has also set up the Nassarau State Enabling Business Environment Council, and he has taken it upon himself to chair that council so that the council works in synergy and in collaboration with the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council. So it's my very special pleasure, first, to invite the Governor to join the Nassarau State Enabling Business Environment Council for the formal inauguration. So I will formally inaugurate this Nassarau State Enabling Business Environment Council led by His Excellency, the Governor of Nassarau State, engineer Abdulai Suley, I inaugurate the council for the benefit of the people of Nassarau State and to the glory of God. God bless you. Thank you very much.