National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) in collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) yesterday began another round of survey on the impact of government policies on the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector.
The survey which would cover the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory would enable the federal government determine the exact contribution of the sector to Gross Domestic Product, employment and the level of their access to the service of the SMEDAN.
Other objectives of the survey are to determine the growth rate of MSMEs, determine the level of access to finance by MSMEs, identify the skill gaps within that sub-sector of the economy, determine the number of MSMEs in the country as well as their challenges and constraints.
The last time such exercise was carried out by the bureau was in 2010 and that survey had revealed that there were 17.28 million MSMEs in Nigeria employing 32.41 million people.
Addressing journalists during the field exercise in Abuja, Tunde Oladokun, NBS State Officer for FCT, said the survey would also help to furnish the government and other stakeholders with useful information with which to make appropriate policies toward promoting and developing MSMEs going forward.
He said since MSMEs are vital to the development of any country, particularly as they promote inclusive growth in any economy by providing employment to a large number of people, there is need to address the dearth of information about their number, people they employ and sectors they operate in Nigeria.
He said, “The exercise we are carrying out is for the MSME and it is in collaboration with SMEDAN which is an agency in charge of MSME in Nigeria.
“We want to collect data to help us know what are the challenges facing this MSME. The data at the end of the day will also assist us determine the contribution of this sector to GDP growth in Nigeria
It will also help us on the jobs available in this enterprise and assist government to get information on number of jobs available in this MSME sector.”
He said the exercise will last for 12 days adding that the survey was conceived as part of concerted response to the challenges of building a credible and reliable MSME database required to strategically reposition the sector.