Miss Maureen Mba who is the Head of the Mansa Digital Initiative at the African Export and Import Bank, has come out to claim that Africa contributes only 3 per cent to the totality of global trade.
Mba made this known yesterday while unveiling the Mansa initiative at a webinar held to discuss the challenges faced by Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the webinar, which was organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, also sought solutions to the myriad of challenges faced by small businesses.
Mba, while explaining the rationale behind the Mansa Digital Initiative said there was an urgent need to promote trade across the African continent.
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She said, ‘Africa contributes only 3 per cent to global trade, and those are just manufactured products. We need to change the narrative. We need to support our SMEs to do better.’
In his welcome address, the president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Michael Olawale-Cole emphasised the need for the government to support SMEs due to their strategic importance to the national economy.
He noted that Nigeria’s small and medium-sized enterprises have long been the backbone of the economy, contributing significantly to economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction.
In another report, Nigeria’s Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima has asserted that Nigeria earns about $5bn from gas, but described it as too low, particularly when compared to what Egypt earns from the same commodity despite having a far lower gas reserves.
Shettima, who was a speaker the 6th Valuechain Annual Lecture and Awards in Abuja, pointed out that Nigeria has over 200 trillion cubic feet of untapped gas resources and ranks 9th globally in terms of proven reserves.
He said the impact of truly exploiting the nation’s gas reserves could not be over-stated, as gas was critical to the nation’s power supply, not only accounting for 80 per cent of power generation today, but expected to be the dominant power generation source by the end of this decade.