Urgent Call to Action for Nigerian Government to Support SMEs – 10 Recommendations

NIGERIA, SUPPORT YOUR SMALL AND GROWING BUSINESSES

SMEs Must Be Prioritized In The Government’s COVID-19 Interventions

10 IMMEDIATE POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT

15th April 2020

 

COVID-19 has descended upon our world, disrupting global health, economic, social and financial systems. On March 30th, President Buhari announced a 2-week stay-at-home lockdown in Lagos, Ogun and Abuja, leading to a sudden and unprecedented halt in operations of businesses across the formal and informal sectors, a lock-down that has been further extended for another 2 weeks. Governments around the world who announced similar lockdowns, including African countries like Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, have quickly followed up with stimulus packages to support their Small Businesses, largely considered to be the engine of growth of the economy, to ensure millions of jobs are retained and to subdue the negative economic impact of a slow-down.

 

DOWNCALL TO ACTION_Nigeria SME Support_15Apr2020_FINAL

Petition Document 1

Petition Document 2

Sign the Petition: Nigeria, Support your SMEs

 

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) make up over 86% of the Nigerian workforce. And so the nationwide lockdown has severely affected livelihoods, as SMEs are no longer able to operate, generate revenues, and meet short-term cash obligations.

Governments around the world quickly put in place stimulus packages to support their Small Businesses to ensure jobs were not lost and the pain in the economy is is not as pronounced. However, the Nigerian government has done very little to support their SMEs, particularly, the over 12,000 SMEs in Lagos, the centre of the pandemic.

Many of us business owners feel lost. We are scared of what the future might bring,  not knowing how our businesses are going to get through this. If we can pay salaries for April and the coming months. If we can meet our other obligations.

What makes it worse is that our financial providers, commercial banks, continue to act like nothing has changed. Principal and interest payments on loans are still being deducted, as well as the erroneous fees from ATM, to Maintenance and Stamp Duty.

We need HELP. From our Federal Government, through the Central Bank, who can also mandate commercial banks to reign in on their practices. This is not normal times.

NIGERIA, PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR SMEs!