New chairman of Ogun State chapter of the Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Yemi Oshifodunrin has stated that necessary steps would be taken to re-position Small and Medium -scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the state, with the intention of generating massive jobs for the teaming population.
He noted that this decision was taken following the level of poverty and unemployment rocking the state and the nation at large, adding that the new executive members of NASME in the state will partner with international and local agencies such as UNIDO, UNDP, IFC, ministries of agriculture, commerce and industry associations as well as various chambers of commerce and industry to improve on the nation’s economy.
He stated that the new slogan “Ogun Operation One, One Project” is a system in which NASME had devised various means through which graduates would be engaged in farming, to create wealth and employment, explaining that the association will secured credit facilities for about 30,000 graduate farmers from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial institutions.
He said, “Nigeria’s poverty ordeal is a time bomb that is ready for explosion, except we do the needful and go back to farming, which is our roots, the masses, the teaming unemployed graduates and the entire youth force will soon fight back. NASME is mobilizing people in the state to confront poverty collectively through Poverty Alleviation, Empowerment, Employment and Mass Mobilization (PEEM) in order to turn the state’s economy around.”
“As you know, Ogun State is the most industrialized state in Nigeria today, and since our slogan is “NASME OGUN – ENGINE ROOM OF THE ECONOMY” we want to radically complement this with Ogun becoming the food basket of the nation.”
“For this purpose, the state has been divided into four zones of Ijebu, Remo, Egba and Yewa. Each zone has chosen, as a first step, one particular agricultural project to embark upon, on commercial scale. Ijebu has chosen TILAPIA FISH, Remo choose KOLANUT, Egba Choose PIGGERY and Yewa’s choice is BROILER production and processing.”
“Apart from this, all zones must key into the all greenhouse vegetable farming which is compulsory for all zones. The cashew processing, and cocoa farming are optional. NASME Ogun hopes to partner with the state government, who has reiterated his promise to collaborate with private sector led BMO is the state.”
“The graduate start up programme (GSUP), we are looking at, will engage between 20,000 – 30,000 graduate farmers of Ogun state at full capacity. They would be organized into cooperative (CLUSTER) to key into the new Central Bank GSUP scheme, using their certificate as collateral. Interested graduate farmers should visit their nearest Ogun Local Government Council and put down their names for registration with the business development committee (BDC) desk officer.”
“We also have programme for those who are not interested in Agriculture. The industrialists, the traders, market women, businessmen, general merchants, and artisans, are all included in our plan.”
“All they need to do is to be in group of Ten (10) – Twenty (20) and in the same profession. We will form them into Cooperative clusters, register them and assist them to access loans. They must be in one place called Cluster village for monitoring and administration purpose. You know we have zero tolerance for bad debt. Cooperative member’s loan liability is single and joint. Default in repayment of single member is the default and burden of the entire cooperative group in repayment.”
“We are also considering training for participants of these projects and they will undergo a two-day workshop of imparting general business rudiments in order to provide them with in-depth operational knowledge and skills in their chosen enterprises. This is to enable them create and manage viable enterprises. Thus, to benefit from our loans, you must undertake our two day training of theory and practical, and collect a certificate of participation.”
Source: dailytimes.com.ng
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