Small and Medium Scale Industries and Economic Development in Nigeria

The paper was meant to examine the role of small and medium scale industries as a means of economic development with particular reference to Nigeria, and the challenges that hinders its capacity to contribute to sustainable economic development, with a view to proffering solutions. The findings of this paper revealed the following challenges among others - inadequate and inefficient infrastructural facilities which tend to escalate costs of operation as SMIs are forced to resort to private provisioning of utilities such as road, water, electricity, among others; and lack of adequate credit for SMIs, traceable to the reluctance of banks to extend credit to them due to poor documentation of project proposals as well as inadequate collateral by SMIs operators. It is suggested that Government should necessitate a policy re-direction aimed at promoting SMIs with a view to achieving not only rapid industrialization but also to making them competitive in a global economy. In spite of the highlighted challenges, SMIs remain critical to development which no country can ignore. SMIs should be developed alongside other sectors of the economy, as this will enhance their roles in the development process. Government as a matter of urgency, should prioritize the SMI sector giving it devoted practical and visible attention with a view to make it virile, focused and productive. The era of lip service attention to the sector should be done away with.