By Lydia Ngwakwe

Some economists on Tuesday in Lagos urged the Federal Government to focus more attention on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as they remained the “engine behind most countries’ growth’’.

The experts who made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that MSMEs required more attention as they are the largest employers of labour when put together.

The Chief Executive Officer of a finance company, Mr Ayotunde Bally, said that the major sector that needed fillip was the MSMEs.

“Looking at the current situation in Nigeria, it is a fact that so many sectors need a lot of financial aid to boost our economy.

“However, the major sector that needs more assistance to drive the economy to greater heights is the Medium and Small Scale Enterprises.

“This can be seen in last year’s GDP where MSMEs recorded 96 per cent of employment rate and 84 per cent of businesses in Nigeria. They need more hands to eliminate unemployment in Nigeria,’’ he said.

Bally added that Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in particular needed to be properly funded as they are mostly owned by youths.

Youths, he said, are innovative, creative and have modern high tech ideas that could fast-pace national development.

He said that the lack of raw materials, inadequate capital to fund projects were some of the major challenges of most SMEs.

He suggested that more input of financial resources to this sector would eliminate the major barrier and lead to a favourable economy.

In the same vein Mr Johnson Chukwu, managing director of an asset management company, urged government to support SMEs to take the economy out of recession.

“If government is able to support and focus more on SMEs they’d remain in business and the economy would exit recession.

“It is a good thing that government has already come up with a N75 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Survival Fund that will enable SMEs to meet their salary payment obligations so that they can succeed,’’ he said.

Prof. Ndubisi Nwokoma, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Analysis and Research of the University of Lagos, also advised government to aggressively support SMEs.

“The Small and Medium Enterprises sector should be aggressively supported by government this year.

“It is a reliable source of economic growth, poverty alleviation and job creation,’’ he said.

Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella, a professor of Economics at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun, however, urged government to focus on six key areas to improve productivity and income this year.

“Key areas the government should give priority in the new year are industrial growth, particularly consumers goods production, food and cash crops, infrastructures, particularly electricity and roads, education and healthcare to improve productivity and income,’’ he said.

He advised that these could be done through government interventions such as bank credits at low interest, tax holiday for industries; input subsidy for agriculture, particularly in free land clearing.

Tella said that other ways could be through free, improved seeds and subsidised fertiliser for farmers and implementation of minimum wage policy to improve consumers spending power. (NAN)

By Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma

The Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria (ACMAN) has expressed optimism that the financial, agriculture, construction and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sectors would drive stock market activities in 2021.

ACMAN president, Prof. Uche Uwaleke, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.

Uwaleke added that construction and manufacturing sectors would drive stock market activities this year, going by their past performances.

He said these sectors would performance very well in spite of the second wave of COVID-19.

“Non-oil sectors that are expected to drive the economy in 2021 and the stock market are agriculture, Trade, financial Sector, construction and ICT.

“Apart from trade, which contributes about 14 per cent to GDP, all the other sectors are already in the positive territory.

“The financial sector, especially the banks and the telecoms sector, appear to be insulated from the impact of COVID-19 going by their performance in 2020.

“So, it is expected that these sectors will still perform well regardless of the second wave of the pandemic,” he said.

Uwaleke also a Professor of Capital Market at the Nasarawa State University Keffi, told NAN that sustained use of online transactions by banks’ customers and network data by mobile phone users would continue to impact positively on the bottom line of these companies.

“For agriculture and construction, the implementation of the 2021 budget, which has given priority to these sectors as well as increased interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria will enhance their performance.

“This is why in the equities market, stocks like Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa, Presco, Okomu Oil, GTB and Zenith are expected to do well in 2021.

“The trade sector is expected to improve following the full restoration of economic activities and removal of movement restrictions.

“The sector will also benefit from the reopening of the land borders and take-off of AfCFTA,” he added.

According to him, transportation and free movement facilitate trade as opposed to lockdowns.

Uwaleke explained that manufacturing, which contributes about 10 per cent to GDP, would equally benefit as supply chain disruptions are eased.

He stressed that lockdowns would affect supply chains, decrease output and increase inflation.

Recall that the nation’s bourse closed 2020 upbeat, appreciating by 50.03 per cent with the All-Share Index crossing the 40,000 mark on the last trading day, in spite of COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically, the All-Share Index which opened trading for the year at 26,842.07 inched higher by 13,428.65 points or 50.03 per cent to close at 40,270.72.

Similarly, the market capitalisation rose by N8.098 trillion to close at N21.056 trillion from the opening year figure of N12.958 trillion.

On policies to pursue in 2021, Uwaleke said the federal government and the apex bank should sustain the expansionary fiscal and monetary policies commenced in 2020 in order to facilitate economic recovery.

He called on government to scale up the Social Intervention Programme and ensure lockdowns and movement restrictions are not deployed in response to the pandemic.

Uwaleke said the government should lift all restrictions on economic activities and emphasise more of preventive measures and observance of COVID-19 protocols.

“The CBN should sustain its Loan to Deposit Ratio and scale up interventions, especially in the agriculture value chain,” he said. (NAN)