The Onitsha Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (ONICCIMA) has expressed serious concern over the exclusion of the South East region from a capacity building programme planned for Nano, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (nMSMEs) by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
ONICCIMA in a statement said “our attention was drawn to the exclusion of the Southeast zone from the proposed programme aimed at enhancing financial literacy, business management, creditworthiness, and loan application processes across the six geopolitical zones”.
The chamber said “given that the proposed programme is in line with the priority areas of the current administration, the it wonders why the region was excluded from the event”, adding that “moreover, when considerations are made for the number of Micro Small Businesses that exist all across the Southeast region, there seems no plausible justification for this oversight”.
“By restricting such a valuable programme to only four regions out of the six, and (intentionally or unintentionally) leaving out the Southeast, a region with a good number of medium and small businesses further lends credence to the narrative of perceived marginalization of that section of the country”, the chamber said. “While the Chamber does not harbour such an opinion, we are eager to understand the reasons for such an omission as this will guide us in addressing concerns from members of the organized private sector in the region”, it further said.
The chamber therefore called on Minister for Industry, Trade, and Investment, Dr Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite, to review the memo to bring the Southeast and Northeast on board. It also suggested that the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment also expands the number of attendees to accommodate as many nMSMEs operators. “Where this is not feasible”, it opined, “a quarterly programme of such magnitude will be beneficial to many businesses as the Federal government looks for ways to stimulate the growth of the economy through its support programme for businesses”.