Ogun Targets First Place On World Bank Index By 2022
By Olu Osikoya, Abeokuta
The Ogun State government says the State has now set a target of becoming the number one State in the country, in the indicator for starting a business by the year 2022.
The Consultant to the State Governor on Commerce and Industry, Ms. Sola Arobieke made this known in Abeokuta at the first phase of the State’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Business Clinic, for Ogun Central Senatorial District.
Arobieke said the government was focused on improving its fourth position on starting a business indicator in 2018 to becoming the best in the country by the year 2022, as well as become one of the top five States on the overall Ease of Doing Business Index.
She added that the State government, under the leadership of Prince Dapo Abiodun was working assiduously to lift the people of the State out of poverty by empowering intending entrepreneurs to start their businesses, while encouraging existing ones grow to desired heights.
She explained that MSMEs Business clinics had to be held in all the three Senatorial Districts in the State, so that intending entrepreneurs and established ones could be guided by relevant agencies such as; Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for business registrations, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) for product registration, as well as the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Ogun State Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The Consultant said government was in consonance with various banks in the State to enable manufacturers and small business owners have access to credit facility at special rates, with many of the loans not requiring guarantors, adding that, apart from commercial banks, 12 Microfinance Banks had partnered with government to grant loans to MSMEs at three per cent interest rate. Arobieke called on beneficiaries to utilize the opportunity to become registered members of any Business Membership Organisation (MBO), including; the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Association of Small scale Business Owners (ASBON), and the Nigerian Association of Small scale Industrialists for free, stressing that this would enable them access more benefits that would facilitate the growth of MSMEs in the country.
Also speaking, the Ogun State House of Assembly Chairman, House Committee on Commerce and Industry, Hon. Kemi Oduwole, called on participants to utilize the opportunity, availed them, lauding the current administration for working in synergy with Federal government in lifting Nigerians out of poverty.
He pledged the Assembly’s commitment to making laws that would create enabling environment and protect businesses in the State.
The MSMEs Clinic for Ogun West Senatorial District holds on Wednesday, November 6, 2019, in Ota.
