 Welcome back. The Perception Study Efficiency and Impact of Regulatory Activities of Standard Organizations of Nigeria's Unesimist Report listed additional difficulties such as the cost of access inadequate technology, the lack of facilities for research and development, the decline in demand for locally produced products, and the increase in demand for imported goods. I am now being joined by the National President of the Association of Micro-Entrepreneurs of Nigeria, Amin, Prince Savio, HA. Many thanks for joining me, Prince. I can hear you, sir. I can hear you. All right. Let's just begin this way from the reports that we just read out that was released not too long ago. Now, the study emphasizes that approximately 80% of SMEs face significant challenges like unfavorable and risky economic climate influenced by various variables. Can you share some of these challenges with us? Thank you for having me. The challenges SMEs are having are so enormous, so big that firstly, the policies, government policies. SMEs are facing a lot of government policies because the government's Nigeria government have neglected the SMEs. Starting from a power, most Nigerian entrepreneurs will source the power of ourselves. For instance, most entrepreneurs, the reason that most entrepreneurs are not making headway is because the left-wing money we have, we are using that money to buy this soon, and you know the cost of this soon now. Most times, in my own factory, for instance, before I consumed this soon, this soon, before, that was in 2015. Right now, as you speak, I consume this soon, 25,000 every day. That 25,000, if you turn seats, that 25,000 every day in 26 working days. We are getting almost 3 million Naira. So, another challenge that we are facing is the issue of finance. Governments are not there, because all these billions of Naira, the government are claiming they are giving to SMEs, is only ends on the place of Nusupam and our television. Because what has been happening in other countries, the banks are not there to help us, even the macro finance bank. So, we have a lot of challenges. That is why we have a number, or an uncontested number of unemployment, because the SMEs are the highest employer level. So, the policies the governments are bringing, and again, most ministers offer, most ministers offer trade and investment. Most of them doesn't have any idea of business. Imagine when you are bringing an engineer to run a sensitive post as business, as economy. So, we need someone that knows the pain that SMEs are having. The SMEs in Nigeria, I want to tell you that about 48% of SMEs in Nigeria have died naturally. And a few ones are in common, as I always say. All right, Prince. The report also identified issues concerning multiple taxations as being burdens for small businesses across the country. You are a businessman, you are a manufacturer in a small scale and all of that. Can you share some of these faxes that are placed on small businesses, specifically your business? Okay. Now, the issue of tax. The area I stay is in Lagos. There is a lot of faxes. They will come with, in fact, which on countless stories. My workers pay tax, how to pay my workers tax, how to pay income tax. In fact, the tax, you know, that's the numerals, that's the uncountable. All right, the uncountable. The tax we're talking about, we are paying tax in everything we do. Even the water we use, we are paying tax on needs. And the government, they are not there to help us. Imagine when you are asking a micro-enterpreneur that we provide everything by ourselves, and you ask us to pay income tax. How much is income? The income that we have used in buying diesel, in buying fuel. So, in fact, it is hard time for government to know the pain that SMEs are going through. All right. Let's look at another issue right now, which would be technology. Because most times it is said that technology and research and development also help in building or making businesses grow. But people tend to say that in Nigeria, it is really very expensive, accessing adequate technology. How has the costs of technology affected your business? The issue of technology, you know, because a small business, you know, we are talking about a business that, you know, the capital base is not up to par for the town area. Most of us, in other words, doesn't have issues of technology. All right. Most of us, most of our people that's in a small level, we don't have issue of technology. It's only for multinational companies. But when we talk of the technology, most of us, most of the entrepreneurs, that's most time that we need to, many of us are upgrading by ourselves, you know, that's getting the information by ourselves. Thank God for the issue of social media. We can go go anything that we want to know, all right, that we want to know, we can even go online and go get it. But most times we expect the government to take some of our, the local refugees, probably to China or in some African countries, where things are working well for us to, you know, to get more exposure, right, that we have our business, but they don't do that. I was going to come to that because that's also another issue that was raised. Issue of formal education or technical competency as in trainings and all of that, you know, there are actually issues that affect them, small business owners and of course their own staff. There's an association that you preside over, which is the association of micro enterprises of Nigeria. Amen. How has your association helped in that light to ensure that your members are actually carried along as part of development and new inroads that affect their businesses? Yeah, time to time, you know, we educate our members, perhaps we house, we have close ties. Most times, members that are in a particular kind of business, you know, we give them, most times they hold their seminars, they brainstorm on, you know, with each other's ideas. You know, some of them, after we do it by ourselves, let me just say this, this smidgen, small business scale of Nigeria, most times they call us for training. Let me just probably make people don't know. And their amounts, they are charging entrepreneur for them to be part of that training. Someone first doesn't have the money. So on our own, we develop our within ourselves. We share experiences time to time, right? For us in order to upgrade, but the small and medium enterprise developers on Nigeria's media, most of their training, you see SM is attending, is with monetary gain. They don't do it through a charge. That is why so many entrepreneurs cannot be able to house such amount of money for them to go for such training. So to us, we develop within ourselves, we return our members for them to be upgraded. All right, Prince Eche, when I started this show, I also mentioned one of the issues that affect a small business or why some of them die is the issue of a patronage of locally made goods in Nigeria. A report once said that Nigerians don't actually appreciate what is produced locally. They'd rather want to get the ones that are produced from abroad. You have been in this business for quite some time. What can be done better in terms of packaging or what we can see so that Nigerians can begin to appreciate made in Nigeria product as against getting imported ones? Thank you very much. On this note, I want to say that Nigerians are beginning to embrace our local products. Yes, 68%. Because in Nigeria products, if you buy a Nigeria product, you see the phone number there. If the product is not good, you know where to report. But most foreign products go after this program, go and pick one or two products that is made from China or India. Their numbers are not going. So this time around, Nigerians are beginning to embrace their own product because they know that the efficacy of those products. Thank God for NAVDAG that are regulating the industry. Probably is what now as I speak, 68% Nigerians are now acquaintance with our products. They are happy using it, and it is working. Coming to the issue of packaging, nobody who don't want good things, good things come with money. So because of the little money we can be able to source ourselves, the packaging you see is what we can be able to afford. If the government is serious, they want our packaging to be okay, as is being done in other countries. We know what is good, but we have to manage the little resources we have. As we round off now in 30 seconds, now what more can be done because you mentioned the issue of capital and funding. How can governments make capital more accessible for small businesses? Very quickly, please. I've said the time to come back. We have a association, five names and the identified association in Nigeria. The government should give money to these associations. We know our members. We know how much they need. Some members, all they needed is only 100,000 naira. Give that 100,000 naira. In 96 months, you will see that those 600,000 naira have made a lot of impact. So the government should send the money to the associations. So we can be able to know how much each of our members need. But this one that you online, most of online loans or grants is funding companies on this paper. I will draw up with this. As we have those workers, likewise we have those entrepreneurs, those entrepreneurs are making use of those money. All right, thank you so much. I have been speaking with Prince Xavier Eche, the National President of the Association of Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria. Many thanks for sharing all of these challenges and of course the way forward for small businesses in Nigeria. I would appreciate your time. Thank you. All right, that's the size of the show for today. I am just in academia. But just before I go, I'll leave you with this report on the standard of an enterprise report for last year. We'll see you again, same time tomorrow. Bye for now. The made in addition of the state of enterprise report 2022 brought together expert from the financial and professional services sector, FBS. The Yes or E report, a first-of-its-kind, an annual industry publication, gives insight into Nigeria's FBS sector. They'll leave when his keynote address, a professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford, Stephen Deccan, stated that the financial and professional services industry is instrumental to driving any nation's economy. He noted that a Nigeria that thrives and is more stable with better economic policy will cause all businesses to flourish. Now, when you look at any country in the world, badly run or well run, relatively speaking, you know, it can be a few thousand, can be a few hundred, can be a few dozen, group of people with power or influence that determine the direction of politics and the economics in a country. Stakeholders say that if there is prosperity and no poverty, there will be peace. For them, the FBS industry is instrumental in driving the prosperity and economic development of Nigeria. We will ensure that together in our practice as professional firms, we give Nigeria the very best that it deserves. And we will also ensure that the private sector under this umbrella comes together as a partner with other sectors for growth and development of our nation. There's clearly a need to change the narrative about Nigeria and we can't leave it alone to the public sector. The private sector also needs to take the initiative and give in the very critical role that the financial and professional services sector plays in economic development as we have seen in other parts of the world. This is why the enterprise NGR was established. It's about realizing that there's a bigger goal for all of us and therefore engaging. And, you know, engagements have taken place historically in different forms. We think this kind of platform where there's hopefully a collective voice, a sort of unified voice can also have maybe a bigger impact. Managing Director of a Merchant Bank, Banja Bikbongbe, emphasizes the need for strong partnership between the business community and those with political powers. And we see the financial and professional services as a catalyst for economic development and growth. And the focus here is to provide a platform that can ensure that the financial and professional services sector in Nigeria can rank with that anywhere in the world and can also provide that catalyst and provide that platform to generate development and growth across all sectors of the economy. Just like other participants, Banja hopes that if all chronicled in the report are adhered to, everyone stands to benefit from the ripple effects of economic development.