Prof. Moriam Adeyemi Aremu of the Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, says Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can be key to unlocking various golden opportunities to solve unemployment and economic problems in the country.
Prof Aremu of the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences, made this assertion while delivering the 6th inaugural lecture titled: “Taking SMEs to the Next Level: Strategic Human Resource Management to the Rescue ” in Ilorin.
According to her, SMEs also play a significant role in national development by contributing 60per cent of GDP and over 70per cent of total employment in developing economies.
“Statistics have shown that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribute over 55 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and over 65 per cent of total employment in developed economies.
“The importance of SMEs in a developing economy like Nigeria cannot be over emphasised. It is obvious that the nation’s economy is dominated by SMEs in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, commerce and industry, services, trading among others.
“SMEs play a significant role in both developed and developing economies across the world. SMEs are believed to be the engine room for the development of any economy because they form the bulk of business activities in a growing economy like Nigeria.
“The development of any nation depends on SMEs to improve the economy and reduce unemployment rate.
“SMEs should focus more on internal strategic management variables such as training, recruitment process, capital base, profit and employment in order to enhance business performance and sustainable development,” she said..
The inaugural lecturer advised SMEs operators to adopt effective leadership in order to motivate employees, promote teamwork, and employee willingness to accept responsibility in order to enhance productivity.
The inaugural lecturer, Prof Moriam Aremu, presenting her lecture to the Al-Hikmah University founder, Alh Abdulraheem Oladimeji and Vice-Chancellor Prof Noah Yusuf
Prof Aremu, who was the first female inaugural lecture and first female Professor in Al-Hikmah University, urged SMEs to employ social media marketing in order to enhance their performance, saying they should see social media marketing as a mean of competing globally.
“SMEs should always evaluate ingenious human resources accounting practices on yearly bases and comparing it with previous years in order to assess performance with a view to raking improvements where necessary so as to rescue the sector.
SMEs should key into influencing consumer’s mood toward achieving better influence, saying this can be achieved by exploring high fear-arousing appeals, guilt-inducing advert, contagious effect appeals and self- identity appeals to influence consumers buying decision to rescue the sector.
She stressed the need to equip and educate owners of entrepreneurs in order to ensure attainment of success and sustainability.
Prof. Aremu called on the government to adopt entrepreneurial education at all levels of education sector in Nigeria through its regulatory agencies.
She advised SMEs to ensure effective marketing strategies and put legal means in place to protect brand’s names against dubious counterfeit in order to prevent the circulation of adulterated services and products.
The lecturer opined that SMEs can flourish and be key to unlocking various golden opportunities to solve unemployment and economic problems in the country.
In his closing remarks, the outgoing Vice-Chancellor, Prof Noah Yusuf said that inaugural lecture always provides Professors opportunities to give accounts of their stewardship and contributions to the university community.
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