German Agency for International Cooperation calls for unity among private sector groups

The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has called on need to foster unity of purpose among all the private sector groups with a view to encourage interactive planning and decision-making processes

Penpushing reports that Ogun State Coordinator for Agency Steven Dada made this known at a 2-days Private Public Dialogue and Advocacy workshop for selected private sectors stakeholders in Ogun state, stressing need  to support private sector participation and strategic coordination.

‘One of the key objectives of the training workshop is to enhance links and avenues for dialogues and constant engagements among private sectors groups. Also, the training was to strengthen the culture of jointly addressing challenges and constraints to businesses through engagement, dialogue and advocacy thereby proffering solutions on how best resolve constraints facing the groups’, he added.

Penpushing further reports that, Dada explained that the overall objective of GIZ-SEDIN is to improve the employment and income situation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), and programme cooperates with partners at the federal, state and local levels.

‘ It has been concentrating its field work in the federal states of Ogun, Niger and Plateau and with a Co-financing by the European Union for the ‘’Nigeria Competitiveness Project’’ (NICOP) since October 2018, the programme expanded to the federal states of Lagos, Oyo, Abia, Kano and Kaduna as well as a “Migration and Reintegration” component focusing on Lagos and Edo States’,he explained.

‘In order to achieve the overall objective, SEDIN is working with both private and public institutions to improve the framework conditions, business enabling environment and promote policies in favour of MSMEs, employment and local economic development’, Dada said.

‘In addition, the programme is facilitating local economic development, strengthening selected value chains, and fostering economic literacy and entrepreneurship competencies for start-ups and existing businesses as well as improving the employment situation of returning and potential migrants’.

The coordinator pointed out that, specific needs of women are considered in all fields of action and the target groups of SEDIN are the owners and employees of MSMEs as well as members of other economically active low-income households.

‘The private sector is a key stakeholder in economic development, being a major contributor to national income and the principal job creator and employment promoter. In Nigeria, the private sector provides employment in the developing world (including formal and informal jobs’,

‘It delivers critical goods and services and contributes to tax revenues and the efficient flow of capital. Hence, the private sector is increasingly being encouraged to help leverage the opportunities and mitigate the challenges of unemployment and poverty’.

‘In the IFC report of 2022, it emphasized that the private sector-led growth strategy will boost Nigeria’s FDI and job creation. The report further stated that Nigeria’s vibrant private sector, dominated by smaller businesses, would require improved policy frameworks and reforms to support sectors beyond oil, which contributes nearly 90 percent of the country’s export earnings’.

‘According to the report, potential investors and Nigeria’s private enterprises could benefit from the country’s extensive agricultural and mineral resources, its young and entrepreneurial labor force, and the country’s strategic position in Africa with market access to other member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)’.

‘In Ogun state, just like any other states in Nigeria, the Private sector actors are perceived as playing a role in dispute resolutions, employment creation and advocacy among other notable functions. They influence their economy to develop in inclusive and sustainable ways, and they affect poverty reduction and drivers of fragility and conflict such as unemployment’, he noted.

‘In carrying out these functions, there is need to foster unity of purpose among all the private sector groups in Ogun State with a view to encourage interactive planning and decision-making processes are needed to support private sector participation and strategic coordination’.

‘This singular act will strengthen and encourages partnerships and local economic development (LED) strategies that combine local skills, resources and ideas to stimulate the local economy, enabling it to respond innovatively to national and global economic changes’.

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