Yemisi Izuora
The Commissioner for insurance, Sunday Thomas, has taken a special note on key intervention of the Lagos State Government towards promoting activities of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, MSME in the State.
Thomas, while speaking at a sensitization workshop for the group in Lagos, observed that Lagos state is a key stop for the Commission for obvious reasons.
According Him, Lagos has been Nigeria’s nerve center of commerce and the State hosts the single largest number of, MSMEs in the country, put at 11.5 per cent of total. (NBS 2019).
Secondly, and more important, Thomas applauded the current and past administrations of the state for demonstrating a continuous commitment to sustaining MSME growth.
Specifically, he said the constellation of deliberate polices, special programmes and projects, in collaboration with various agencies to boost capacity, access credit, enable trade are all commendable.
Some of the State efforts that readily comes to mind and which have been supportive to the Federal Government efforts, Thomas said are the Lagos State MSMEs Exclusive Fairs.
He also recalled the N220 billion Micro and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) to cushion the impact of COVID 19 as well as other State intervention programs
“All of these efforts represent to us both the will and action to engender MSME growth. It is with these assurance that we have anticipated and prepared, that we shall record much more significant outcomes here with this workshop.” he said.
The Commissioner observed that the Level of vulnerability of MSMEs to extinction by likely disasters – both natural and man-made is very high,saying, “We all witnessed the destruction of life and property during the #EndSars protest which may have killed some MSMEs and driven some persons further down the poverty line. The good thing which is our message to you today is that insurance will provide you the shock-absorber to withstand any of these unforeseen calamities when they do occur and help your reinstatement in business.”
He assured that NAICOM is committed to our mandate of providing diligent oversight to the insurance sector towards ensuring prompt settlement of genuine claims when insured event occurs.
“I dare say that the MSMEs sector is too important to be neglected as it is key to economic development of the nation and thus, must be guided and protected against failure. The encouraging responses validate that the products meet a critical need also that the appetite for players in the MSMEs sector to succeed sustainably is high.
To ensure that you are properly guided, let me inform you that we have 59 insurance companies; 510 insurance brokers, 4 Microinsurance companies and 4 Takaful companies licensed by NAICOM to operate. Be free to approach any of them for an appropriate and adequate insurance policy that meet your needs.” he added.