Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, has said that due to the fact that poor people cannot enjoy democracy, generating wealth through small and medium businesses should be a priority of any government, hence the need to support the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
Dogara stated this when he received in audience, a delegation from the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER) in Abuja on Wednesday. Dogara maintained that the promises of democracy; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, cannot be realised in a society where the people are ravaged by poverty and ignorance.
The Speaker opined that the best way to engender prosperity in the nation and fulfill the promises of democracy was to provide jobs to people, especially in the areas of SMEs. “We believe that the best way we can engender prosperity in the nation and fulfill the promise of democracy is when we get people to work, especially in the area of business.
“Small and Medium Business Enterprises, small businesses generating wealth, generating employment and so on and so forth.
“I have cause to say that the multinationals don’t generate wealth; they rather provide platforms to which citizens’ wealth migrate to them, and in most cases the capital is exported in terms of profits that they make from the nation.
“If you have two million small businesses employing 40 workers, on the average you are talking about 80 million jobs; and we can do that in this country”, he said.
Dogara further explained that the decision by the House of Representatives to review laws of the Federation was to ensure that the enabling environment for business was created.
Speaking earlier, leader of the delegation, Mrs Sola David-Borha, said members of the group have been providing technical support to the National Assembly in the areas of legislation and would continue to do so.
She requested that the Speaker assist the group with a liaison office in the National Assembly and assign a high ranking member of the House of Representatives to work with them in the proposed private sector technical office.
