APPRAISAL OF THE ACTION OF OSUN STATE GOVERNMENT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES (MANAGEMENT PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
ABSTRACT
The objective of this research work is to evaluate the effort of Osun State Govern-ment as it affects the small and medium enterprises, also to analyse the success achieved by the said state government in relation to small and medium enter-prises(SMEs). Furthermore, the study explains various schemes that support SMEs in Osun state, and ultimately look into the intrinsic effect of SME’s on the develop-ment of the economy in Osun State.
The theory parts explains how successful SMEs businesses has affected the growth of the nation’s economy ,also highlights various challenges faced with Small and Medium scale Enterprises among which are management issues, financial incapa-bility also economic issues. Furthermore, different loan schemes for SMEs and their functions are discussed, and process involved to have access to them. The materi-als used for this thesis was gathered from books and online resources, also previous studies on the subject.
The descriptive research method is used for data analysis and interpretation. Spe-cifically, co-relational descriptive research method is used which intends to find out whether projects financed by Osun state Government lead to economic development as a result of job creation. And from the analysis of data, there is a perfect strong positive relationship between the numbers of projects financed by the state govern-ment of Osun state and employment creation. This means that if Osun state gov-ernment finances more projects then more jobs will be created through Small and Medium scale Enterprises development.
Keywords:Â Small and Medium enterprise, economic development, Gross Domestic Product, Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, Small and Medium Industries Eq-uity and Investment Scheme, Bank of Industry, Large-scale Enterprises
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1Â Â Â Â Â Background to the study
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have performed substantially in the growth, development and industrialization transformation of many economies worldwide. However, the growth of these SMEs itself is a big challenge. For decades, people have been depending on government for survival, ability to establish and carry on the smooth running of profitable business was not in people. Inability to forecast and foresee the business opportunity available in the environment is what sometimes seen among the major problems. People might conceive business ideas of an en-terprise yet, it is the first stage to start and merely conceiving the idea will not give the guarantee for success.
In the case of Nigeria, SMEs have performed under expectation due to a combina-tion of issues which vary from attitude and habits of SMEs themselves through en-vironmental associated factors, economic instability, instability of governments and frequent government policy changes and somersaults.
The top ten areas where SMEs are struggling with at various levels in Nigeria in de-creasing order of intensity include: management, financial access and assistance, robust infrastructure, inconsistent and unstable government policies, institutions and bureaucracy, environmental related issues, multiple and rigid taxes and lev-ies, technological unavailability and barriers, marketing problems, unfair competi-tion, and at last but the least non-availability of raw material locally (B. A. N. Onugu, 2005).
