By joshua 
Poised on the need to have an organised and well structured Small and Medium Enterprises in the state, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kogi Enterprise and Development Agency, (KEDA) Hajiya Rakiya Onaivo Sanni has called for cluster management reform among small business owners in the state.
Hajiya Rakiya made this known in her office recently in Lokoja while interfacing with a team of GSM operators in the state with members of KEDA staff and management.
According to her, most SMEs in the state have folded up due to a lack of financial support and facilities to match up with the standard of operation in the society.
She added that when businesses of the same area of operation form clusters, they expose themselves to opportunities in having access to grants and another form of enumeration coming from the government, the world bank and other sources.
Rakiya further emphasised the need for an organized structure, expertise on specific skills and modules of operation.
While making her remark, she disclosed that there is an ongoing effort by President Buhari led administration to MSMEs birthed the encompassing idea of supporting small businesses by providing at least one shared facility in every state of the Federation.
She stressed that government provides various equipment and machines for a particular type of trade which is very expensive for any small business to buy.
Three key sectors she listed; Cassava, Palm Oil and GSM village are areas of focus which any of them that gets approval for the shared facilities will be fully equipped for its cluster to fully operate.
Earlier the chairman of the GSM Association in the state, Muhammad Idris thanked KEDA for the opportunity consideration, assuring that the association is well structured and organised in the state.
He disclosed that personal efforts have been made by the association to have a conducive environment for its members to operate, but more efforts are still required to stabilise and function well.
He further sought partnership while also highlighting the challenges of the association as lack of suitable location to converge all members, inability to procure equipment, lack of finance to train and retrain members on advance ICT and among others.