Vice President Yemi Osinbajo opened the fourth shared facility for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) on Tuesday.
The facility, which is built next to Amakohia Market in Owerri, Imo State, has a multi-million-naira garment factory to assist tailors and fashion designers with the creation of clothes and clothing items.
Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, revealed this in a statement on Wednesday captioned, ‘FG launches fourth shared facility for MSMEs, fifth ready Friday, eight more next year.’
Osinbajo, who unveiled the facility at the MSME Clinic’s 29th edition in Owerri, said it will increase the quality of locally made apparel while also emphasizing that federal facilities belong to all Nigerians.
According to him, “Federal Government and federal resources belong to all Nigerians. Each state is entitled to seek partnerships with the Federal Government to better the fortunes of their people.”
“In the course of operating the Clinics, we noted that in addition to their concerns for a more friendlier regulatory environment, MSMEs also sought to be helped in terms of manufacturing facilities that were insufficient or too expensive,” the Vice President explained.
“This is how we came up with the idea of supporting MSMEs by providing at least one Shared Facility in every State of the Federation. It is also why the President approved the Shared Facility Scheme for MSMEs as part of the MSME Clinics.”
The Vice President further stated that the facility that was recently inaugurated in Imo is the country’s fourth.
“It will serve about 350 small businesses daily and over 110,000 each year. It also comprises 200 world-class, both manual and fully automated fashion equipment; and a special facility that enables it to become a one-stop garment centre for end-to-end production of various types of clothing items,” he said.
Edo, Kaduna, Kebbi, Ogun, Ebonyi, Katsina, Ekiti, Bauchi, and Kano will all have shared facilities in 2022, according to him.
The next shared facility in Edo State, according to the Vice President, would be a woodwork carpentry and cabinet manufacturing plant, which will be located within the Edo Production Centre in Benin City, and will open on Friday, December 17, 2021.
