August 05, (THEWILL) – Nigerian entrepreneur-missionary, Melody Fidel, has called on African governments to increase their support and collaboration with small and medium-scale businesses on the continent in order to create job opportunities.
Melody made the call while speaking as one of the guest speakers at the 100 Most Notable Africans Leadership and Business Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, on the topic: “Partnership and Collaboration in Governance and Business, Shaping the Africa Investment Opportunities”.
According to the entrepreneur-missionary with over a decade of experience championing the cause of small-scale businesses and entrepreneurship in Africa, increased government support and collaboration are capable of reducing the challenges of high unemployment in Africa.
“African governments supporting small and medium scale businesses is the ideal place for us to start from. We cannot get to the big industrialization and uber-manufacturing frontier without first developing the small and medium-scale sector because that is where the jobs are, that is the sector that can take away the pressure of unemployment, which is the bane of Africa today. Governments should make soft loans, grants and tax breaks available widely in this sector to help operators employ and train more people in their businesses, especially in the agro-allied industry.
“Governments should partner with people like us who contribute our little resources as grants to hardworking members of the small and medium scale businesses sector with a message that they pay it forward. This will open more markets and opportunities at a time when the public sector and the organised private sector are struggling to provide job opportunities to ordinary people most of whom are young. Besides, the removal of such pressures from the public sector and the organised private sector gives them the opportunity to think and act on bigger national projects for the advancement of society,” he explained.
In his speech, he highlighted the importance of the African government signing and implementing the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCTA) as well as creating an enabling environment and business-friendly laws that will spur indigenous African trade to thrive.
The Executive Governor of Zamfara State, Dr. Dauda Lawal, among other notable Africans in the government and business circles, were physically present at the event in Kigali.
Melody Fidel is the founder of Stability and Sustenance Business Summit who, in the past decade, has coached over 100,000 youths physically and virtually on skills acquisition and monetisation, disbursed business grants to over 300 youth and in late 2023, got recognised for his youth mentorship with The Future Awards Africa Prize for Service to Young People.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
