About Us
THIS IS MSME FORUM
Forum of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Business Membership Organization of Nigeria
Following its registration on September 7, 2018 by the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, members of the Board of Trustees of Forum of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Business Membership Organizations of Nigeria, known otherwise as MSME FORUM, paid a courtesy visit to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in July, 2019, to inform the Ministry about the birth of the organization. They were received on behalf of the Permanent Secretary by Mr. Opaluwa John, a Deputy Director in the Industrial Development Department of the Ministry. Agreeing with the thinking behind the establishment of the organization, Mr. Opaluwa said “it is when you have this kind of leadership forum that boasts of men and women with wealth of experience that can talk to similar operators and make them listen, that you can bring in the public sector,” stating that the MSME FORUM was an idea whose birth was even overdue.
The Deputy Director was right. The idea of the MSME FORUM had been in the pipeline since 2001, when Frederick Norman Foundation (FNF), was still in Nigeria. As reported in the 2001 edition of Bedrock Magazine, the the German Foundation and the Nigerian Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), under the leadership of Dr Albert Olajide Akinyemi, initiated a process that would have given birth to an umbrella body for MSME Associations. Though the spirit was willing, realities on ground then, were unfavorable.
Since then, the need for an umbrella body as proposed by the FNF and NASSI kept popping up at different seminars and workshops, where the focus of discussions was how to make the Nigerian MSME sub-sector, a sturdy and dependable spine of the national economy.
Today, that organization has come on board. Through a process initiated by Dr. Albert Olajide Akinyemi, with Mrs. Rose D. Gyar of Global Center for Human Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Development (GLOCHEED). as its mid-wife. She subsequently mobilized some BMOs for an inaugural meeting in September 2015 at the Wuse Zone 5 NASME Secretariat, Abuja, where the desirability of the umbrella body was tabled and discussed. In attendance were Alhaji Garba Ibrahim Gusau, then President of National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, NASME, 'Segun Adeleke of Bedrock Global Communications, Barrister Vera Ndanusa of National Association of Women Entrepreneurs, NAWE, Dr. Koinyan of Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists, NASSI, Mrs. Aisha Mbaka and a few others. At a subsequent meeting on September 30, 2015, held in the Training Room of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), 20 participants from different Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) met and decided that the umbrella body be established with the primary aim of “creating a platform for advocacy and engagement with stakeholders in respect to holistic and coordinated approach to MSME development in Nigeria”.
With a covering letter from SMEDAN and letters of intent by the BMOs, the organization was later registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC) on September 7, 2018. Since then, MSME FORUM has continued to gain acceptance and recognition as more relevant stakeholders become aware of its existence and deliverables as contained in its Technical Paper on Sustainable MSME Framework For Nigeria's Economic Growth and Development. As listed in this brochure, over a hundred participants from different sectors of the MSME space attended the organization's 2nd Strategic Planning Meeting held on July 29, 2021, at the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, RMRDC, Maitama District, Abuja.
Today, that organization has come on board. Through a process initiated by Dr. Albert Olajide Akinyemi, with Mrs. Rose D. Gyar of Global Center for Human Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Development (GLOCHEED). as its mid-wife. She subsequently mobilized some BMOs for an inaugural meeting in September 2015 at the Wuse Zone 5 NASME Secretariat, Abuja, where the desirability of the umbrella body was tabled and discussed. In attendance were Alhaji Garba Ibrahim Gusau, then President of National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, NASME, 'Segun Adeleke of Bedrock Global Communications, Barrister Vera Ndanusa of National Association of Women Entrepreneurs, NAWE, Dr. Koinyan of Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists, NASSI, Mrs. Aisha Mbaka and a few others. At a subsequent meeting on September 30, 2015, held in the Training Room of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), 20 participants from different Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) met and decided that the umbrella body be established with the primary aim of “creating a platform for advocacy and engagement with stakeholders in respect to holistic and coordinated approach to MSME development in Nigeria”.
FINANCIAL SYSTEM STRATEGY (FSS202) AND FORUM AT CONCEPTION STAGE
Long before the registration of Forum by the Corporate Affairs Commission, Financial System Strategy (FSS2020) of the Central Bank of Nigeria had embraced the organization at its embryonic stage, involving it in their deliberation on the way forward for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises development