Nigeria unveils one-stop shops for small businesses

In order to better the ease of doing business in Nigeria, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has launched MSME Clinics, one-stop shops for small businesses in Nigeria.

The one-stop  shops are in line with the World Bank global best practices for enhancing the set up of businesses in across the world.

“Sometime in July 2015 Mr. President spoke to me about the frustrations of anyone who has to do business with government agencies,” Osinbajo said at the launch of the Clinics.

“He gave the example of an NGO that wanted to install a cancer screening equipment donated by a friendly government several years ago, and it took seven years to finally install it.

“He said how does the economy function when government agencies are prepared to deliberately or unwittingly frustrate economic agents.”

Osinbajo discussed other bottlenecks affecting small business in Nigeria, and how the new clinics will tackle the highlighted challenges.

“Working very closely with the ministry of industry, trade and investment, we came up with the idea of MSME Clinics as one important building block in finding solutions. This term was chosen deliberately to reflect three things, all borrowed from the health sector,” he said.

“The first is that individual MSMEs face problems that can readily be addressed through direct access to the relevant official.

“The second is that direct consultation with such a fairly senior expert often helps in finding a solution.

“The third is that a reasonably large number of people can be attended to without the need for expensive and time consuming travel to agency offices. In other words, great benefits could be reaped from exploiting economies of scale.

“We will accordingly be bringing all key federal government agencies with whom the MSMEs interact together in one place so that small businesses can consult with them directly and obtain solutions on the spot.

“The MSME Clinic will also serve as a one stop shop for those businesses that need to speak to more than one agency. Given the size of our country and the dispersion of MSMEs, it is evident that the MSME Clinic must go round the various states and to key MSME locations.”