Nasarawa State government yesterday in Lafia held a town hall meeting with stakeholders of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to discuss improved business environment in the state.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency (NASIDA), Barr Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the Governor Abdullahi Sule administration has introduced some reforms initiative that would help reduce bureaucratic bottleneck and improve ease of doing business in the state.
He said such reforms are aimed at strengthening Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs), adding that the meeting was to serve as an avenue to communicate the reforms that are being implemented by the state government.
He further said that the town hall meeting was to create a platform for the Nasarawa State government to interact with small business owners to enable the government understand their challenges and proffer possible solutions to them.
He said, “This townhall meeting is mainly to understand the challenges confronting MSMEs in the state, to enable us provide solutions. The meeting is to communicate the reforms that are being implemented by the government and to hear directly from them because we realised that a number of reforms have not been properly understood by the businesses.
“The townhall would be a sustained engagement and this would also mean that businesses, ministries, department and agencies with the government would take up the responsibly of ensuring that there is adequate feedback.”
In his opening remarks, Governor Abdullahi Sule said his administration, having recognised the importance of small businesses in the growth of the economy of the state, on assumption of office, initiated several policies and laws geared towards creating a favourable business environment in the state.
He said the essence of government is to help towards facilitating the development of its people and society, stressing that the only way to actually develop any community or society is to ensure that people are economically independent of government.
He expressed satisfaction that over 300 small business owners, including youths, were participating in the townhall meeting.
Chief Executive Officer of Sandaji Group of Companies, Abubakar Sandaji, who spoke on behalf of the stakeholders, lamented the issue of multiple taxation on MSMEs in the state and appealed to the government to look into the issue in order to encourage small businesses to grow.