Nigeria Lost About 3 Million Small Businesses In The Past Years- SMEDAN Boss

Mr. Charles Odii, Director General/Chief Executive Officer of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), has said that Nigeria has lost almost three million small companies in recent years as a result of environmental concerns including floods.

The CEO made this statement at a panel discussion hosted by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Lagos under the theme “Sustainable Business Growth in a Challenging Macro Economic Environment.”

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He said that the states most affected by the pandemic of small business deaths were those like Kogi and Benue, which had just experienced devastating floods.

He stated, “Upon assumption in office, we looked at the data and one of the things that we want to do is be driven by data and we saw that we lost about three million small businesses in Nigeria. They used to be about 42 million. And they had to do with environmental factors especially flooding in Benue and Kogi state”

He further noted that the agency will be launching a department that helps with sustainability framework for small businesses.

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Specifically, he mentioned the aspect of alternative energy sources that leaves less carbon footprints on the environment.

He noted that agency has started the program in the Wuse market cluster in Abuja where they encouraged traders to pivot from using petrol generators to solar panels and batteries which was better in terms of cost and on the environment.

Additionally, the SMEDAN boss noted that the agency plans to scale the initiative to include building green cities for light manufacturing for small businesses through partnerships with the state governments where some of them have already provided land for the initiatives.