The Nasarawa State Government and stakeholders of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises on Tuesday, held a town hall meeting in order to have an improved business environment in the state.
Speaking in Lafia at the inaugural Nasarawa Business Environment Townhall, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nasarawa State Investment Development Agency, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said 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 to understand their challenges in order to proffer possible solutions to them.
He said, “This town hall meeting is mainly to understand the challenges confronting MSMEs in the state to enable us to 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.
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“The town hall would be a sustained engagement and this would also mean that business ministries, departments and agencies with the government would take up the responsibility of ensuring that there is adequate feedback.
“They commended the government for the improved power supply in the state. We also took comments from the businesses on the taxes they are supposed to pay and other issues of concern and we have explained and given proper clarification to them on the issues raised.”
In his opening remarks, Governor Abdullahi Sule said, having recognised the importance of small businesses in the growth of the economy of the state, his administration on assumption of office, initiated several policies and laws geared toward 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 the 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 300 small business owners, including youths, were participating in the town hall meeting which would provide an opportunity for the government to hear from them.
“The meeting is an avenue for government to interact with MSMEs, with a view to understanding their challenges, as well as the various risks involved. I urged all participants at the meeting to freely engage with the government officials in order to understand each other,” the governor said.
One of the stakeholders who is the Chief Executive Officer of Sandaji Group of Companies, Abubakar Sandaji, lamented the issue of multiple taxation being meted on MSMEs in the state and appealed to the Nasarawa State Government to look into the issue in order to encourage small businesses to grow.
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