The German Agency for International Corporation (GIZ)-SEDIN has collaborated with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to build resilient Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs).
The Executive Secretary of LSETF, Mrs Teju Abisoye, said the collaboration entails evolving strategies and structures that could help build sustainable businesses in different states.
Abisoye made the remarks at a two-day Learning visit/peer learning event for MSMEs Support and Microfinance Agencies in SEDIN partner states held in Lagos.
She said: “We are not just doing this in the name of making our governments look good. If we lay the right structures and we build businesses we will be affecting lives and creating jobs, we will be reducing insecurity, poverty. We will also be giving the people the opportunity to send their children to school.”
She also added that GIZ-SEDIN programme and the LSETF partnership would strengthen the capacity of partner States’ MSMEs and microfinance agencies for effective service delivery and better impact on jobs.
Mr Akin Omoware, Head of policy and Strategy Unit, GIZ-SEDIN, while giving an overview of GIZ-SEDIN’s programmes in Nigeria, said SEDIN was working with MSME support and microfinance agencies in partner states.
According to him, this would enhance general MSMEs support and increase the access to finance for MSMEs.
He stressed that the support also included the institutional strengthening of these agencies for effective service delivery and better impact on job creation. Omoware said the object of the workshop was to provide opportunity for exchange and peer learning among the partner states’ MSMEs and microfinance agencies.
This, he said, would deepen the knowledge and capacity on innovative approaches for delivering MSME support and microfinance service to MSMEs especially in the COVID-19 era.
Other objectives, according to him, includes increasing the orientation of the MSME and microfinance agencies on the core expectation of their mandate in line with global best practices and particularly the expected impact of their mandate on MSME growth and job creation.
