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The National Information
Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Small and Medium Enterprises
Development Agency (SMEDAN) have agreed to build database in promotion of the
businesses of over 40 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The two agencies said the
partnership would protect 70 million jobs across all sectors and safeguard 50
per cent contributions from them to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the
country.
The Director-General of NITDA,
Kashifu Inuwa said the Agencies would collaborate to have joint programmes in
terms of infrastructures, digital literacy, and other interventions.
Inuwa made this known at a
meeting with the Director General of SMEDAN, Mr Charles Odii at the
Headquarters of NITDA in Abuja.
According to a statement from the
Head of Corporate Communications of NITDA, Hadiza Umar, the meeting agreed on collaboration in terms
of infrastructural and human capital development for SMEs in Nigeria.
Inuwa revealed that there were
opportunities for collaboration between NITDA and SMEDAN as stated in the NITDA
Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan, stating that a Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) would soon be signed to kick-start the programmes. He said the
collaboration would facilitate the penetration of digital literacy among Small
and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) to enhance productivity.
He added that it also aligns with the
objective of the National Digital Literacy Framework (NDLF).
“We all know that with digital
literacy a market woman can sell her goods without moving from one place to
another, as someone can use digital platforms to order for goods and have them
delivered to them.”
The DG NITDA stated that the
collaboration is apt as it will strengthen policy implementation and legal
frameworks like the Nigerian Startup Act.
He said SMEs make up about 90 per
cent of the country’s workforce and more than 90 percent of businesses,
emphasising that “We really want to work with you, to explore how we can get
them (SMEs) to benefit from all the incentives within the Startup Act and we
target those who use innovation to promote productivity or innovation-driven
enterprises.”
Mr Odii in his remarks said his Agency had a couple
of digital literacy programmes they started, stating that they were at NITDA
for broader collaboration and have access to
NITDA curriculum to ensure that their efforts meet global standards.
“We understand that NITDA is the
secretariat for the Startup Act, and we want to work with you in sensitising
them (SMEs), especially those of them who are startups to take advantage of
this and also help to add to your database for registration.
“We have a robust SME database
that we are building, and we would like to partner with you to make sure that
the framework for this database is in line with what you have for data
entrepreneurs," Mr Odii said.
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