The Bank of Industry (BoI) has identified entrepreneurship as one of the ways to take the economy out of the woods.
Its Acting Managing Director, Waheed Olagunju in a presentation at the second day of the first National Forum on the Economy organised by Vintage Press Limited, titled National Economy: The Way Forward, said the time has come for action having been speaking about challenges and pains.
Represented by the GM, Joseph Babatunde, Olagunju said if the SMEs are encouraged, more jobs will be created.
He said research by SMEDAN had shown that there are 37m SMEs in the country, adding that if they are encouraged and each of them employs one person, its multiplier effect would be tremendous.
He said Nigeria is number 3 next to US and India in the movie industry, adding that if the strength of the country is explored in the area of the production of goods and services for which the country has comparative advantage, the economy would prosper.
He said BoI is working with the CBN and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to develop credit bureau and collateral registry to ease access to funds to SMEs.
According to him, the bank is also working towards the building of industrial parks, adding that the bank also has cottage agrofund, fashion fund, Nolly fund and the N5m microfinance fund.
He urged governments at all levels to address the issue of multiple taxation. (Culled from The Nation)
