Exhibition Of Locally-made Products By MSMEs Opens In Akwa Ibom

SUNDAY April 13, 2025 |
By thenewsdesk.ng

A five-day product exhibition of locally made products and services as part of sensitisation campaign on promotion and patronage of indigenous goods has opened in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, providing a platform for MIcro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises(MSME) to enhance their businesses, BusinessDay reports.

Organised by the Federal Ministry Of Industries, Trade And Investment, it is also “aimed at encouraging and providing products and services of high quality consumer goods as a way of discouraging importation of goods that can be produced in the country.”

The minister of industries, trade and investment, Jumoke Oduwole while declaring the exhibition open which attracted hundreds of product exhibitors, said the Federal Government is concerned about the development of MSMEs in the country with many programmes designed for their support. The ministry has MSMEs in its heart, we have evolved robust programmes towards their development.

“We have technical support packages, things to give them, the knowledge to be able to innovate on what they do. The challenge is that most of our MSMEs are doing quite a lot but they do not reach out for information. We want to ensure that we reach as many exhibitors as possible across the country.”

Represented by a deputy director in the ministry, Rimamchija Kafiya, he said that for Nigeria to grow its economy, it has to stop depending on imported product, adding that Nigerians should give their patronage to locally made products which he said are the incentives needed by the MSMEs in the country, something that will make them hire more hands.

Also speaking, the South-south coordinator of Nigeria Agribusiness and Agro-industry Development Initiative (NADDI), Howard Usen, said that the exhibition would afford MSMEs the opportunity to upscale their business activities and encourage export of goods and services.

“The programme was designed for local entrepreneurs in terms of grants, funding and access to the market to be able to upscale their production activity. We are here to tell the entrepreneurs that what you produce here can be produced for your community and export as well.”

He dispelled the notion that it is difficult for MSMEs to have access to credit facilities from banks and other financial institutions saying that access to funding is a function of knowledge.

“Access to funding is a function of knowledge. If the banks don’t give out money as loans, they would not make money themselves. The banks make money when they advance your credit but is it a product of knowledge. Nobody will give a stranger money, the banks want to know what you are doing, they look at your capital, do you have enough money to pay for loan that you want to access, the cash flow is not there, knowledge is not there, what we call financial intelligence in ensuring that you have adequate records in your office. The money is there but do we have the capacity to access the funds?

He also said that seven products have been identified as potential exports during the exhibition, adding that such would require to meet international standards.

“We have identified about seven products that can be well packaged that can be exported. Such products as plantain chips, is needed outside Nigeria, there is a new business that is set up in the US, so if you produce plantain chips, that is quite good, then you already have the market,” he said.