Small Scale Entreprise in Nigeria: Issues and Prospects

In our Go Negosyo: Meet the Presidentiables forum with President-elect Rodrigo Duterte last February, he reiterated that he will have programs to support the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country to help alleviate poverty. The President himself said that he will allocate a budget to the Department of Trade and Industry to help assist MSMEs and provide training and seminars for them. The President Duterte knows that there are many micro-entrepreneurs in the urban areas that still need financial aid and additional technical

The purpose of this paper is to identify how different factors effect on the growth of small businesses. The growth of small businesses has been influenced by factors such as growth strategy, business forms, short and medium term goals, financing assistance, organizational structure and staffing needs, customers and promotion, and ethics and social responsibility. In this paper will to discuss how the different factors alter the advancement of small businesses.

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) have become increasingly important to Zimbabwe 's economic growth. Given the increasing number of retrenches due to the economic downturn Zimbabwe experienced, SMEs offer the best alternative means of livelihood for most people. There is therefore, need to support the growth of this sector so that it contributes more meaningfully to national economic development. One of the major problems Practical Action Southern Africa has established as an impediment to the growth of SMEs is lack of proper working capital management systems. This presents a major constraint to their financial performance and their survival. Given the current economic hardships hampering economic progress in Zimbabwe the SMEs industry in one of the key industries where the economy is pinning its hopes. However due to the stringent requirements in the financial sector it is proving to be very difficult for the small firms to secure enough funds to sufficiently finance their operations,

had increased from 11.2 million in 1990/91 to 17.8 million in 2001. This implies that 650,000 new people had been entering the labour market every year, (URT, 2005). Micro-enterprises tend to be more effective in the utilization of local resources using simple and affordable technology. They also play a fundamental role in utilizing and adding value to local resources. In Tanzania most micro-enterprises use local resources and affordable technologies to undertake their activities, these activities include:

In view of the poverty situation in Bangladesh, the government’s major development objective is to create more employment in order to secure incomes and thereby reduce poverty. Because of the structure of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Bangladesh, which are mainly labor-intensive and the development of SMEs is considered to be the most effective contribution to the eradication of poverty.

The definition for small-scale industrial undertakings has changed over time. Initially they were classified into two categories- those using power with less than 50 employees and those not using power with the employee strength being more than 50 but less than 100. However the capital resources invested on plant and machinery buildings have been the primary criteria to differentiate the small-scale industries from the large and medium scale industries. An industrial unit can be categorized as a small- scale unit if it fulfils the capital investment limit fixed by the Government of India for the small- scale sector.

Small business enterprises form special economic component of a given country. As such the strategies should be put in place to ensure their proliferation and continued generation of profit to the owners and revenues to the government. Small businesses are also source of employment for most individuals who are unlucky to be employed by the multibillion corporate and other middle level companies and organizations. Management strategies are plans that are put in place by either government or the business owners to ensure that their businesses are being driven towards growth and enhanced profitability. The strategies put in place are usually well researched and organized in steps and stages that can easily be followed to ensure the development of the small firm and their continued existence. This paper will be looking at a small business firm, analyze its intellectual capital resources and come up with recommendations and proposals that will help to boost the total growth and profitability of that particular business firm. The paper will look at into the strategic intents of the business firm, document and designate the intellectual capital resources required by the business venture in order to grow. The competitive advantage position of the venture will be analyzed according to the resource based theory and give recommendations that will improve the chances of the successfulness of the identified small business firm

Research shows that young high-growth firms (also commonly known as ‘gazelles’) generate a large share of all new net jobs (Roper 2012). Robbins, Pantuosco, Parker & Fuller (2000) has also confirmed in their research that a state with large quantity of small business has lower rates of unemployment compared to other states that has little quantity of small businesses. The reason employment rates are valuable in measuring growth is because each firm will grow until they reach the optimal size that corresponds to minimum average cost (Hart 2000). Thus, each firm will continue to employ during its growth stage until it reaches the efficient scale or natural decay. However, other research has proved that it is difficult to measure small firm performance by employee growth. This is due to moderating variables such as outsourcing activities, productivity changes and replacement of employees with capital investments (Fitzsimmons, Steffens & Douglas 2005). When business grow in this the rapid changing modem world, many production and service functions has been contracted out (Bridge, O’Neill & Martin 2009). In other words, a business can grow without having any increase in employment rate.

In the context of small to medium enterprises, statistics show that about half of new businesses fail within five years (Anderson 2014). The reasons for why new businesses fail have been a number of reasons. Some of them are due to high interest rates, taxes, and lack of bank lending (Anderson 2014). In the UK sector, it has been noted that the chances of a new business from flourishing is even harder than before the financial crisis (Anderson 2014). With the countless amount of reasons for why SMEs do not prosper

The number of SMEs in India is around 40 million per the published statistics in 2013. Moreover, around 6,000 different products (both traditional and hi-tech products) are offered by SMEs in India (Kumar 2013). According to Goyal (2013), even though SMEs contribute only around 17% to GDP growth, it gives employment to 40% of India’s workforce. While encouraging big companies, cities like Detroit failed to recognize the importance of the SME

Currently, SME’s in Kenya employ more than 87% of the labor force that contribute 18.4% of the National Gross Domestic product (GDP), (GOK, 2009).However, their existence in the Kenyan economy has not been without fair challenges that inhibit their growth, potential and offer them an average lifespan of 5 or less years in existence. (Bowen, Morara, & Mureithi, 2009)

Abugu( 2007 ) has found that the government in Nigeria is lack of commitment at every level in order to develop small business sector. But there are certain of the policies or laws that only can carry out by government. In Nigeria, the government has

Further, the distribution showed that most indigenous Nigerian SMEs are not directly involved in the strategic sectors of the economy such as oil and gas exploration. The very huge financial requirement of oil and gas exploration, complex paper work and the inability of the indigenous SMEs to obtain funding from the banks and financial institutions as seen from earlier distribution tables, could possibly explain the situation.

THE ROLE OF SMALL SCALE INDUSTRY IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA Ayozie Daniel Ogechukwu, Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria, The Federal Polytechnic, Ogun State, Nigeria Abstract A business whether small or big, simple of complex, private or public is created to provide competitive prices. Business in Nigeria has been classified as small, medium and large. In both the developed and developing countries, the government is turning to small and medium scale industries, as a means of economic development and a veritable means of solving problems. It is also a seedbed of innovations, inventions and employment. Presently in Nigeria, SMEs assist in promoting the growth of the country’s economy, hence all the levels of

If efforts are put towards promoting SMEs, particularly, the likes that are concerned with the informal sector, achievement of development that is sustainable is inevitable. Most developing as well as developed countries depend on the small and micro enterprises in the provision of employment. Even though a number of small and medium-sized enterprises are not part of the formal sector that is