THE Principal Consultant of Philly & Mools ' a player in Nigeria's transport sector, Niyi Oguntoyinbo, has said that activities in the industry are 'just mere scratches on the surface.'According to him, considering the strategic nature of transportation in any economy and particularly, its potentials in accelerating Nigeria's development given the country's population, the nation is yet to deepen its investments and reap the resultant earnings from the sector.Oguntoyinbo made the disclosure at the 2011 Alumni Conference of the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) ' an arm of the Pan-African University, in Lagos, tagged: 'Infrastructure: Key Challenge for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).'He said: 'No serious economy can grow without transportation, though energy is also a special requirement. But goods must move from place to place. People as well, must move from place to place. In essence, goods and services must move from where they are produced to where they are needed or demanded. This is the role of transport sector and path to SMEs development.'We cannot excuse government if it fails in its responsibility. Only government can provide solid framework to determine how the goods and services will work and this is streamlined to infrastructure challenge, which included building of good road network, maintaining the existing ones and better policy framework for people who operate in the sector.'Government's policy provision should also be in the form of finance. Can you imagine borrowing money at 23 per cent to finance a business that its average or gross margin is 15 or 16 per cent' Government can play a financial role by encouraging certain banks to take give special attention to certain sectors, especially the transport sector that is strategic to the nation's development.'Sometimes, government say one thing on the one side, while another thing is done on the other side. For example, if you go to Urban Development Bank, they will tell you that they only finance inter-state transport, but the general view is that they finance transport business. So, where is the place of urban transportation initiative' Why would a bank chose to buy thousands of buses for the roads that are not good and six months down the line, the vehicles are no longer useful''Individuals who want to survive on their own (SMEs) are hard hit and government would not help them out. There seem to be disconnect and contradictions. There is no binding between government and people who are looking up to it to deliver the goods of leadership.'Oguntoyinbo, who also doubled as the president of the alumni association, however, noted that the yearly conference was aimed at ensuring networking possibilities within the alumni, adding that it also brings opportunities to brainstorm as entrepreneurs seeking to impact on each other and the wider community.'The conference usually brings us (entrepreneurs) together and afford us the opportunity to do business with each other. As we seek the growth of SMEs, there are some who have gone ahead of others, hence there is need to tow along those coming behind and impact generally on the larger community.
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