Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (NASME) has urged the government to support small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) with grants to survive the present economic challenges.
NASME Chairman in Oyo State, Prince John Karunwi, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) in Ibadan on Monday.
Karunwi said that the association had prepared for the economic challenges by building the capacity of its members through various training programmes.
“Through the training programmes, we have been able to build their capacity to know that it is not business as usual and that change management must be embraced, particularly at this period.
“The change management in their operations will enable them to look inward and see what aspects should be reviewed in order to create more competitiveness,” he said.
Karunwi said that members had also been advised against taking loans now, even if it is a digit loan, because before they could make procurement, inflation might have taken its toll on the loan, thus making them to run at a loss.
“If the government should give grants at this time, it will be good, as MSMEs need them as against loans which may be eaten off by inflation and thus, they may not be able to pay them back.
“But, it is grants from government, there will be less pressure on them to pay the money back, which will give them sustainable productivity,” Karunwi said.
The NASME boss said that members were also trained on financial literacy, as most SMEs, especially the nano- enterprises, lacked financial literacy.
According to him, most of them do not keep personal accounts from business accounts and, therefore, lack proper bookkeeping and financial management.
Karunwi said that the association had initiated discussions with government on tax harmonisation so as to address the issue of double taxation.
He said that NASME had also been exposing members to exhibitions, where they can sell their products and make money. (NAN)
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