ENHANCING INCOME GENERATING CAPACITY OF MSMEs THROUGH VALUE CHAIN ACTIVITIES, TO INCREASE NIGERIA’S COMPETITIVENESS IN THE ECOWAS REGION

 

Late 2021, I facilitated a Business Enabling Environment (BEE) awareness workshops held for Value Chain (VC) Associations, under the Nigerian Competitive Project (NICOP). Representatives of the three NICOP VC Associations covered by the NICOP were in attendance at the events. The three VC Associations: National Tomato Producers Association of Nigeria (NATPAN), Plateau Leather and Apparels Sector Manufacturers Association (PLASMA) and the Ginger Farmers Association were in attendance, at the different days allotted to each VC Association, and finally on the day selected for all the VC Associations to assemble as one body for a workshop.

It will interest the reader to note that the core objective of the workshops, like many others, organized at intervals for either the business support groups or business operators themselves by the German Development Agency (GIZ), leading International Development Organization, operating in Nigeria, is to improve the employment and income situation of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), in Nigeria. This particular GIZ programme, and series of others, in Nigeria is conducted under the Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment in Nigeria, also known as Sustainable Economic Development In Nigeria (SEDIN).

The NICOP event, as a component of SEDIN, was funded by the European Union (EU), implemented in Nigeria by the GIZ. The programme sort to strengthen the competitiveness of the MSMEs, in the selected VC areas: Tomato/chili, ginger, leather and garment, as well as promote trade and export of Nigeria in the ECOWAS region. On the strength of this, yours truly through the workshops sort to enhance the operational capacity of the value chain associations, whose representatives attended the workshop, participated actively and promised to use the lessons learnt. 2023 is a good time for this platform….. to commence visitation of the Groups to assess their performance, and we will also be updating you on this and numerous other activities.

DON'T MAKE THIS A CHANCE EVENT, IT IS NOT

 

Visit this earth wonder at Jos Museum in Plateau State

How often do you climb 100 nature erected, and divinely constructed steps (staircase), to behold a nature-made city? 

ALIGNING CONSCIOUSLY WITH BUSINESS GOALS WILL ENHANCE THE CAPACITY OF MSMEs TO DELIVER ON THEIR MANDATES

One of Nigeria's sumptuous delicacies.

MSMEs take note. Set your goals  

Let me start this piece, notifying my esteemed reader, that goals, which stand for what the MSMEs (comprising the individual entrepreneurs and the firm or enterprise), strive to achieve, the reason for going into business. In a nutshell, goals are what the MSMEs target to achieve in their bid to obtain the best possible result from converting inputs into more valuable end products and services, or useful outputs/results. The usefulness, particularly, quality or value of the end products and services, is determined by the consumer, who among other things, takes into consideration, the extent the goods and services will meet the need, or satisfy the desire that prompted the consumer going for the said goods and or services. Avoidance of waste and cost reduction, as production principles, are usually among the major factors that are taken into cognizance when determining effectiveness or otherwise, of the conversion process, leading to the production of the goods or services.

IS LYING COMPLIMENTS NOW MORE PREFERABLE TO THE SOCIETY THAN SINCERE CRITICISM?

  

Like a very strenuous exercise, the time spent with a good friend stretches, but the stretching is enjoyable, because it tastes so so good, not because all that happens during the stay with a friend, is comforting. Unfortunately, the joy is the stretching, a clear indication that it is in the stretching that real friendship is built and the joyful fruit is  produced. It is a thing of joy, because it is a real friend that identifies and indeed ignites the fire of change and the high positive value that such attracts.

In today's translation of friendship, bold and honest words of a friend, would easily provoke, and in most cases are seen as inflicting pain, and are strongly resisted with high sounding words, such as I am disappointed in you, the real intended meaning, somebody like me battles always to grasp without success. 

The time spent with a good friend, is stretching because of the opportunities that it indeed throws up consistently, not necessarily in terms of praises that saturates the moment, no, but for the end result: self-cleansing, occassioned by sober reflection, instigated by a friend, it would pass for the ignoramus, a very painful session, as will soon be revealed in this piece. 

What I consider here a valued moment, in terms of the time spent with a real friend, is in reality, a Pandora's box, sort of. It throws up a chain of events, anchored on self diagnoses that include: self-check, self-appraisal, self-counseling and self-re-orientation.

THE "FORCE BEHIND THE WORK": WHAT MSMEs MUST KNOW TO DELIVER ON THEIR MANDATE TO THE MARKET AND ECONOMY

Participants of a capacity building training in Jos, Plateau State Capital, organized by Jos Chember of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, and conducted by the Nigerian Export and Import (NEXIM) Bank

Attainment of goals which precedes the celebration, joy and euphoria that greets the arrival to a pre-determined, planned or schedule place/point; hitting a target, reaching a limit and/or completing a task successfully, is by every stretch of the imagination, facilitated by humans, a reason, may be, enterprises, private or public, big or small, is regarded as a purposeful, organised human activity.

UGOEZE OGBONNA: NNEOMA AWARD CONFERED ON HER, HONOUR WELL DESERVED

The Nneoma Award Recipient

Rhoselyn Ugoeze Ogbonna 

Call it a day of Thanksgiving, prayers and praises; call it a memory making, a memory keeping and celebration day, in the family of Very Rev. Ogbonna Victor, of Ameke Ibeku, Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia State, South East Nigeria, and particularly, members of the Methodist Church, at the Archbishop Dimoji Memorial Cathedral, Ihube, also the same State, when the Clergy, the men, women, youths, teens and kids of Methodist Church, and many other people, from the various Christian denominations, poured out in mass as the Bishop's wife, Nneoma Chinwendu Ada Ekebuisi, stepped out to honour an exceptional and adorable woman, a child of God, and a committed, hardworking Mother and Wife, a dedicated co-worker in the vine yard of God, who has proven over the years, a reliable and dependable, huge source of inspiration, an ally and strong supporter of her husband's calling, as a servant of God. 

FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT: VITAL FOR IMPROVED MSMEs, AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA

Participants of a Management

 training for MSME Trainers

Organizations, big and small, need a functional management, as the lead, in all plans, to identify, attract and deploy, effectually, available resources: human and material, in carrying out the arduous task of converting inputs into more valuable and useful outputs. Studies, reveal encouraging roles played by managements in boosting worker creativity, and increasing performance in the workplace: at both personal and contextual levels. 

The various roles of managements at different times, organizations and levels, include: empowerment, transformational and supportive. Effective managers have proven in diverse ways the benefits that accrue from the manager - worker exchange, in boosting worker morale and enhancing the value of resources through increased creativity, innovation and strengthening of relationships for a healthy work environment that has been recognized as a necessity for increased productivity.

The above, indicates that MSMEs, in Nigeria, most of whom, are either not in the know, do not understand or for reasons best known to them, have refused to recognize that "management" is an inescapable, indispensable and crucially essential tool, required for their operations. By this action, the MSMEs, are ignorantly, but, dangerously undoing themselves. Downplaying the importance of management, as a key component of MSME operations, threatens not just their role as economy builders, but a major derailment at building a strong, diversified, self-sufficient and self-reliant national economy. It is inimical to all meaningful efforts, targeted at tapping generously from the very rich, natural and human resource deposits, that are scattered in all 774 local government areas, in the 36 states of Nigeria.