SMEDAN MSMES

SMEDAN To Protect Intellectual Property For MSMEs

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The Director General/ Chief Executive Officer of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency Nigeria SMEDAN, Dr Dikko Radda has said that the agency would protect intellectual property for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector of the economy.

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He stressed on the need for SMEs to be sensitised on the importance of Intellectual Property to enhancing the value of their enterprises.

Radda, who made call during a world press conference to commemorate the 2021 World Intellectual Property Day , a brainchild of the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Abuja, lamented that most Small and Medium Enterprises, across the country are not aware of the importance in enhancing the value of their products, services and processes.

He also urged relevant agency with the statutory function in the administration of IP to be easily accessible by moving closer to the SMEs.

He gave examples of intellectual property that would be protected to include music, literature, and other artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs among others.

He further explained that under the intellectual property laws, owners of intellectual property are granted certain exclusive rights.

He described intellectual property as a key consideration in day to day business decisions as new products, brands, creative designs appear almost daily on the market and are result of continuous human innovation and creativity.

Radda said, “SMEs are often the driving force behind innovations. However, their innovation and creative capacity is not fully exploited as many SMEs are not fully aware of the intellectual property system.”

He identified one of the challenges facing MSMEs to include lack of awareness as most of them ar not aware of the importance of intellectual property in enhancing th value of their products, services and processes.

The SMEDAN Boss also said costs associated with IP protection may deter SMEs in taking the initiative protecting their intellectual property

In his remarks, the Ag. Head, World Intellectual Property Organisation Nigeria office , Mr Oluwatobiloba Moody said at a time when the imperative of economic recovery in Nigeria is high, particularly in the light of global pandemic, the WIPD 2021 provides an important moment to shine a light on the critical role of SMEs in Nigeria.

Moody said SMEs are the backbone of Nigeria’s economy, adding that they deliver the goods and services Nigerians need everyday.

DG SMEDAN also said MSME hatch breakthrough innovations and inspiring creations that have job creation potentials.

He said globally, SMEs make up about 90 per cent of the world’s businesses, employ around 50 percent of the global workforce and generate up to 40 percent of national income in many emerging economies.

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SMEDAN

Organization commends SMEDAN DG over rural healthcare intervention

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A health promotion service organization, Klytical Allied Ltd has commended the Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Dr. Dikko Radda for his humanitarian intervention in rural healthcare.

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The Director General was applauded for his interest in and sponsoring of a health outreach in Charanchi and Dutsin Ma local government areas of Katsina State during which about 2759 villages received medical attention, medications and referral on various diseases.

A team of experts from Klytical Allied Ltd led by Dr. Vincent Okpara were at SMEDAN headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday to make a visual presentation of the outreach and award of honour to Dr. Radda.

Okpara said the outreach done in three phases comprised of health talk in preparation for the outreach; distribution of medications and referral for further medical attention.

Making a presentation of the outreach, Dr.Ifeyinwa Ani – Osheku, said perennial diseases and ailments prevalent among people of the area include high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, stroke, low back pain, arthritis,respiratory tract, urinary tract problems, cataract and glaucoma were attended to by the team of experts and 25 health volunteers.

The organisation called on persons in public offices to emulate the kind gesture of the SMEDAN director general.

Responding, Dr. Radda said he was impressed by the level of commitment of a team of medical experts from Klytical Allied Ltd to the outreach project.

He said “I sincerely thank the organisation for providing the outreach. The approach to the outreach was a success story. You have done it beyond my expectation . What I saw and heard from people is quite encouraging.

“I will like you to do more of this sacrifice to the nation. It is a fact that there is deficiency in healthcare delivery. Government alone cannot shoulder the responsibility. We need organisations like yours to bridge the infrastructural deficit in medicine and healthcare sector.

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SMEDAN

SMEDAN opens N5m loan application portal for SMEs

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The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, says it will open its portal Tuesday for receiving applications from small business owners for N1.2 million to N5million loans.

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The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of SMEDAN, Dikko Radda, in a statement issued by the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Agency, said the loans would be funded from the SMEDAN-BOA Matching Fund Programme for small businesses.

Mr Radda said the opening of the programme portal would be a promotional intervention meant to deliver credit to the small businesses to enhance enterprise output, competitiveness and jobs creation.

He also stated that the disbursing entity, under the programme, shall be the Bank of Agriculture, BOA.

“Target beneficiaries for this programme shall be labour-intensive micro or small enterprises (MSEs), operating in the real sector.

These shall ideally be innovative value-added products that are establishing footprint in the Nigerian market, and require additional funds to increase output,” the Director General said.

He, therefore, called for applications from all suitably qualified micro, small enterprises located in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Kaduna and Oyo states to apply for the programme.

Mr Radda added that prospective beneficiaries, who must be registered with SMEDAN, would get the loans on business-friendly terms, including waiver of collaterals.

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SMEDAN MSMES

SMEDAN unveils Initiative To Boost MSMEs Access To Global Market

by with No Comment BusinessNews

The Federal Government has launched the ‘SMEDAN SELECT’ initiative to strenghten market expansion for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises as well as support the creation of brand names for Made-in-Nigeria products.

READ ALSO: Nigeria’s SMEs Get FSD Africa Lifeline For Financial Inclusion

The Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, Dikko Umaru Radda said that the initiative which was designed to create brands from standard Made-in-Nigeria products in the food, fashion, beauty and goods sectors, would increase access to local, regional and global markets.

According to the DG, promoting the activities of the MSMEs is critical to the growth of the Nigeria economy as they collectively account for a majority of the enterprises in Nigeria and also account for the highest number of jobs created in the economy.

According to the National MSMEs Survey of 2017 conducted by the Agency in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria has a total of 41,543,028 MSMEs, employing 59,647,954 people and contributing 49.7 percent and 7.64 percent to nominal GDP and exports respectively.

He said, “Objectives of implementing SMEDAN SELECT are to increase access to local, regional and global markets for MSMEs; to support market expansion for MSMEs to support the creation of brand names for Made-in-Nigeria products as well as to increase awareness creation on standard Made-in-Nigeria products.”

Speaking at the launch of the SMEDAN SELECT Document,Wale Fasanya, Director, Planning, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Agency, who represented the DG said the products, numbering about 150, have been specially selected across Nigeria.

He said these products would be displayed and marketed on the SMEDAN Website and other social media handles.

Radda noted that MSMEs, if properly harnessed, could trigger an entrepreneurial revolution in industrialization, agriculture and commerce in Nigeria towards creating the platform for job creation, wealth creation, poverty alleviation and food security.

He said, “Globalisation process for MSMEs can be realized through any of a range of cross border activities, including trade, international investment, and participation in strategic alliances, partnerships and networking arrangements.”

Despite the success of MSME strategies in a few countries, he said majority of developing countries have found that the impact of their SME development programs on enterprise performance has been less than satisfactory.

He, however, encouraged Nigerians to patronize all the products profiled as a way of supporting the MSMEs to achieve their collective goal.

SOURCE: THE WHISTLER

SMEDAN INITIATIVE

MSMEs To Receive Support Through SMEDAN

by with No Comment BusinessNews

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) says it will support Nigeria Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs in a practical way through its SMEDAN SELECT initiative.

The Director-General of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, Dr Dikko Umaru Radda said this at the launch of the SMEDAN SELECT Document in Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria

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The DG who was represented by Director, Planning, Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Mr Wale Fasanya, said the SMEDAN SELECT is designed towards creating brands from standard products amongst the best of Made in Nigeria products in the food, fashion, beauty and goods sectors.

Radda said, “these products, numbering about 150, have been specially sought and selected across Nigeria and the products would be displayed and marketed on the SMEDAN Website and other social media handles.”

“The hardcopy catalogues would also be distributed to Embassies, MDAs and in departmental stores across major cities in Nigeria to improve the patronage of these products.”

He noted that the MSMEs sub-sector is a very important sub-sector in the Nigerian economy.

“They collectively account for a majority of the enterprises in Nigeria and also account for the highest number of jobs created in the economy,”  Radda stated.

He said the recent National MSMEs Survey of 2017 conducted by the Agency in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that there are 41,543,028 MSMEs, employing 59,647,954 (76.5% of the labour force) and contributing 49.78% and 7.64% to nominal GDP and exports respectively.

The SMEDAN boss said this staggering statistics cannot be ignored in any serious economy, adding properly harnessed, MSMEs can trigger an entrepreneurial revolution in Industrialization, Agriculture and Commerce in Nigeria towards creating the platform for job creation, wealth creation, poverty alleviation and food security.

Dr Radda also said the globalisation process for MSMEs can be realized through any of a range of cross border activities, including trade, international investment, and participation in strategic alliances, partnerships and networking arrangements.

According to him, “governments in both industrialized and developing countries provide a wide variety of programmes to assist micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.”

“Despite the success of MSME strategies in a few countries, majority of developing countries have found that the impact of their SME development programs on enterprise performance has been less than satisfactory, as such there is the need to develop and deploy more specific approaches, hence the SMEDAN SELECT initiative.” 

Dr Radda stated that the objectives of implementing SMEDAN SELECT are to increase access to local, regional and global markets for MSMEs; to support market expansion for MSMEs. to support the creation of brand names for Made-in-Nigeria products as well as to Increase awareness creation on standard Made in Nigeria products.

He however encouraged Nigerians to patronize all the products profiled as a way of supporting the MSMEs to achieve their collective goal of instituting the MSMEs sub-sector of our dream that would contribute significantly to job creation, wealth creation and poverty alleviation.

SOURCE: VON