Olayemi R. Ibrahim
3 June 2011
Sierra Leone President, Ernest Bai Koroma has called on the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEDAN) to assist his administration in building institutions and tackle unemployment.
This was contained in a statement signed by Levi Anyikwa, Assistant Director, and Corporate Affairs of SMEDAN at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel during a meeting with the Director-General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Muhammad Nadada Umar and the Director-General of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed.
President Koroma called for SMEDAN to assist his administration in building institutions and structures that would permanently address the scourge of poverty and unemployment while admitting that the West African country has serious problem of youth empowerment.
He disclosed that his administration had already established a Youth Commission, an agency considered critical to solving the problem of unemployment that is made up of largely the unschooled, school drop-outs and also graduates.
“We need to set up institutions and structures that will address poverty and unemployment, not with a cosmetic approach, but on a permanent basis,” he said
According to him, agencies like SMEDAN and NDE could facilitate the establishment of similar institutions and structures in Sierra Leone, adding that the target of his administration was creating an enabling environment for self-employment.
He also acknowledged that all over the world, no country can develop without micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) which are the biggest employers of labour. “We need to learn from your experience”, he added.
Responding, the Director-General of SMEDAN, Alhaji Muhammad Nadada Umar, stressed the agency’s preparedness to partner with Sierra Leone to develop the country’s potentials in the area of micro, small and medium enterprises, saying SMEDAN would not want Sierra Leone to repeat the mistakes of Nigeria which ignored the development of MSMEs in the past.
He pledged that the agency would conduct a Needs Assessment Study of Sierra Leone and then produce a blueprint for the emergence of a vibrant MSME sector in the country, adding that meaningful engagement of youths is a panacea to youth restiveness and that no nation can develop without developing the MSME sector.
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