Nigeria’s Govt Tasked To Harness Small Businesses’ Potential In Achieving GDP Projections

By BENJAMIN OMOIKE

The Federal Government has been advised to harness the potential of Small Businesses in the country, to achieve its six percent GDP rate projections.

Chief Executive Officer of Jordan FM Lagos, Lanre Johnson, gave this advice at the sensitisation and adoption of the E-Naira wallet by the Lagos State Council of the National Automobile Technicians Association (NATA), in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in Lagos, on Thursday.

Johnson said there is a need to ensure that Small Businesses are well captured into the E-Naira crusade because the E-Wallet is a game changer for the Nigerian economy.

“Our advice to the new government is for them to take this E-Naira more seriously, and we believe that the issues we have today in Nigeria are community and grassroots-based. So if we can put a whole lot into the E-wallet and support the digital economy by embracing small businesses, a lot will happen to us as a nation because the bedrock of our economy is the people we have here today. Imagine in Lagos alone, they have over 200,000 members.

“Our appeal to the new government is first, we appreciate a lot of changes that are happening right now, they are taking the right steps in the right direction, but they should focus more on how to take the small businesses away from the informal sector to the formal sector. And by the way, regarding the projection of a six percent GDP growth rate, if we can harness all of this, a lot of people are saying it is not going to be possible for this government to achieve a 6 percent GDP growth rate yearly, but we are saying it emphatically that if we harness these people, put them together on this digital platform, that projection will be beaten.”

Stressing the need for the general public to embrace the digital currency, Lanre Johnson said “The E-Naira is more like our national asset, we must continue to promote it, and we must continue to sensitise our people. China has done its own and they are working on it, Australia is doing theirs, and India is doing theirs, I think close to about 115 countries in the world have started their digital currency with their Central Bank.

“The onus rests on us as an entrepreneurship radio station for us to support the government and to ensure that small businesses are well captured in the E-Naira crusade because we know that the E-Wallet is a game changer. And you can attest to what happened today that NATA has the strength of about 200,000 thousand members across Lagos, imagine we have these numbers transacting on E-Naira every day, I tell you it will be the game changer we have been waiting for, and you can see the assurances we are having today from the members of NATA that they will all subscribe to this. We will continue to push until E-Naira gets to every nook and cranny of the country.

”Chairman of the Lagos State Council of the National Automobile Technicians Association (NATA), Comrade Moruf Egberoungbe said that his members are ready to adopt the E-Naira wallet as a means of transaction in their businesses.

“It is an avenue for the artisans to transact with one another, and it is the safest means of transacting business launched by the Central Bank. Since the launching of the E-Naira, I have advised my members to adopt it, he said.”