Number of MSMEs Rises 12% to 41.5m in 4 Years

As medium enterprises decline by 61%.

The number of micro, small and medium sized enterprise (MSME) in Nigeria has risen by 12.3 % over four years, a new report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) shows.

The number of MSMEs grew from 37 million in 2013 to 41.5 million in 2017, the 2017 National Survey, launched last Thursday, shows.

According to the report, micro enterprises account for 99.8% of the total businesses in Nigeria, while small and medium size enterprises both account for less than 1% each.

“Compared with 2013, both total MSMES and micro enterprises grew by 12.1% while small enterprises grew 4.6 percent from 2013,” the report states.

“The number of medium-sized enterprises decreased significantly from 4,670 in 2013 to 1,793 in 2017, indicating a 61 percent drop,” the report adds.

Lagos, Oyo and Osun account for the highest gaining states for the growth in the number of MSMEs, while Kano, Rivers, Plateau recorded the biggest decline.

The report states that wholesale/retail trade, agriculture and other services activities make up 76.3 percent of micro businesses.

Education, human health and social works are identified as sectors that require high numbers of employers r skilled labor with very low numbers of micro businesses.

Accommodation and food services are a preferred sector (top 5) across all business classification types, the report states.

“MSMEs generated 59,647,954 jobs as of December 2017. Five percent or 2,889,715 of those jobs were created by SMEs with males accounting for 57% compared with 43% for females,” the report says.

The survey finds that the majority of the MSMEs operators source their initial capita from personal savings and 49.5% are able to access bank credit.

On priority areas where MSMEs need support, the report says that access to finance is tops for assistance, followed by power and water supply as well as tax rate reduction.

The MSMEs surveyed recommended that there should be review of the system of business classification, particularly the national policy and that targeted policy implementation should address the strength and challenges of each business types.