The Big Goof of the Business Support Group

The Business Support Group was inaugurated early this year by His Excellency, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, to engender private sector support for the Nigeria Vision 2020. The group recently submitted its reports to the Steering Committee of the NV 2020. However, stakeholders complain that they have not been carried along since the inception of the group. Blessing Nwobodo, in this report, looks at the Big Goof of the BSG.

Background

The Business Support Group (BSG) is a brain child of the secretariat of the National Steering Committee on Vision 2020 set up to engender private sector support for the NV2020. Its membership is drawn from reputable and visionary business leaders and entrepreneurs of distinction headed by Alh. Umaru Mutallab, Chairman, First Bank Plc.

Other members include Alh. Aliko Dangote, President, Dangote Group; Alh. Babanga Tukur, Chairman, African Business Roundtable; Alh. Bashir Borodo, President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria(MAN); Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, former MD/CEO Oceanic Bank Plc; Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, Chairman, Daar Communications Ltd; Mr. Erastus Akingbola, former Chairman, Intercontinental Bank Plc and Mr. Femi Otedola, Chairman, African Petroleum Plc.

The group is expected to be a platform through which the private sector will contribute actively to the envisioning process, guided by three main objectives which are: the mobilization of private sector stakeholder involvement and input in the development of the vision document, the mobilization of public opinion and support for the implementation process of Vision 2020 and assisting in the mobilization of necessary resources, including funding, for the process.

Story so far

In line with its schedule to complete and produce the Nigeria Vision 2020 document by the end of September 2009, the various committees met recently to submit their reports to the Steering Committee for review and upward transfer to the President.

Speaking on the report by the Technical Committee on SMEs, Mr. Nerus Ekezie, Head, Public Relations and Membership Services, National Association of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, Nerus Ekezie, said that the report contained a mandate for the total rehabilitation of infrastructural activities that enable businesses thrive and also, bail out funds for SMEs.

The Goof

Despite meeting the deadline to submit its report by September 2009, M2 investigations reveal that the group goofed on publicity. While some stakeholders say that little or nothing has been heard of the group since its inception, others claim ignorance of its existence.

When contacted to speak on the relevance of the BSG to SME growth recently, Mr. Duro Kuteyi, Chairman, National Association of Small Scale Industry (NASSI), said that he was unaware of the group. This is definitely not a good report from someone who should be in the know.

M2 also spoke with Mr. Jide Majiyagbe, Centre Manager, Business Information Centre, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), who asked the reporter to call back for fuller details as he was still researching on the group.

The unpopularity of the BSG may be because even strategic stakeholders, such as NASSI and SMEDAN, have not been carried along in its operations and one wonders why the group did not carry out ample publicity, if ever there was one. Is publicity not a part of its agenda in mobilizing support and ensuring that there is full participation of the private sector in actualizing the NV2020? M2 spoke with a member of the group, Alh. Bashir Borodo, who could not give immediate answers to this question and requested that the reporter should call him back; but subsequent attempts to reach him proved abortive.

Meanwhile, some stakeholders have rejected the group’s report to the Steering Committee arguing that the non-involvement of stakeholders in the vital stages of collating and compiling the report makes it a failure

Mr. Rotimi Oladele, General Secretary, Institute of Entrepreneurs Nigeria (IOEN), also agrees that the BSG report is already a failure. According to him, the group cannot claim to have represented the stakeholders in its report without consulting with them and getting feedback from them.

This shows that the BSG needs to work harder if it wants to remain relevant to the people whom it is supposed to represent. It may be advisable to employ workshops and seminars to encourage public participation. It should also consider the opinions of stakeholders in its operations and use the media to propagate its activities. Meanwhile, we can only hope that their report is representative of pertinent economic needs.