OPS can revamp Nigeria’s economy, says Obaze, ex-Anambra SSG

From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha

A public policy expert and frontline contender in the November 18 governorship election in Anambra State, Oseloka Henry Obaze, on Wednesday, advised the Federal Government to pay adequate attention to the role of organised private sector (OPS) as a way of revamping Nigeria’s extremely stressed economy.
Obaze, a former Secretary to the Anambra State Government, who spoke during the installation of the new President of Awka Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Mr. Felly-Zontal Akosa, described the OPS “as the engine of any society.”
He noted that as fiscal and economic challenges confronting Nigeria continue to dominate public discourse, along with the entrenched debate on the restructuring of the polity, the issue of recession and unemployment will abate if the OPS is offered the enabling environment and encouragement to operate and compete fairly in this 21st Century global marketplace.
Obaze, who also decried the proposal to run the 2017 budget until June 2018, said,  “I’ve heard the explanation that the 2017 budget will stop running when the 2018 budget kicks in. That’s all well and good. Yet, making the 2017 budget open-ended by implication means that the budget will stop running when the end users say so; not when the law says so.”
He noted that, “one way the Federal Government can boost the operations of the OPS is for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to revisit its foreign exchange policy,” calling on state governments to lend their voice to the call to end the two-tier foreign exchange policy of the CBN.
He noted that since the nation’s economy slipped into recession last year, the Federal Government has been working round the clock to rejuvenate the economy but these efforts are yet to yield desired results as the nation is still visibly challenged by the trio of recession, inflation and high unemployment rate.
He identified poor access to credit, inadequate capitalisation, poor financial planning and review, poor market segmentation and/or strategy, lack of market knowledge, poor strategic vision, absence of a standard-quality programme and underestimating the competitors as among the factors that lead to the failure of SMEs.”
Furthermore, Obaze said, “I’ve seen an alarming figure of the fail rate of SMEs in Nigeria being as high as 75 per cent. Such business failure is mind boggling. SMEs are critical in that they contribute 55 per cent of the GDP and 65 per cent of employment, hence where the fail rate is high, the economy and the people in turn suffer,” said Obaze