Small And Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) And Nigeria’s Economic Development

In a developing country like Nigeria, there several socio-economic conditions impeding meaningful development, despite many interventions and policy strategies. However, Small and Medium Scaled Enterprises (SMEs), if fully developed have been identified as being beneficial in alleviating poverty through wealth and job creation. This sector can benefit any government that develops it to the extent that it has the capacity to grow a country's GDP, generate taxes and other revenue, as well as assist in bringing stability in the polity of a country. The corporate world can also gain from the specialised goods and services of SMEs and the healthy market competitiveness it promotes, thus giving way for a strong private driven economic sector, with entrepreneurs springing up. In Nigeria, the prevailing economic and political conditions have not given room for SMEs to thrive, as evidenced in the challenges they are currently facing in the country. Despite these challenges, SMEs are associated with immense benefits which can be harnessed to better the Nigerian economy. This forms the subject of analysis in this paper. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n7p656