This research paper has specifically x-rayed the concept of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and it was defined as a business which is owned, led by one or a few persons, with direct owner(s) influence in decision making, and having a relatively small share of the market and relatively low capital requirement. The contributions of SMEs to the economy were examined in this paper. The problems confronting SMEs and the possible strategies of combating the problems were also examined. A conceptual framework was developed by the authors and it explains/illustrates the series of variables that are integral in the area of SMEs and the effects it can possibly have on the economy. The concept of Economic Development was briefly described. A section was devoted to examining the roles of SMEs for economic Development in Nigeria. One of the major recommendations advanced in this paper was that the Government should urgently invest massively in improving the current infrastructural base in the country. 1.0. Introduction The national economy has remained a focal point in recent debates owing to the rising level of unemployment, poverty, insecurity, low productivity, human capital flight/brain drain. The need to advancing the socioeconomic , political and technological growth of any nation relies heavily on the creativity and technical ingenuity of the players/actors in that economy in transforming the available resources into productive use. It has been stressed by scholars that Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) is a driving force in developing and developed nations alike. The emphases on SMEs remain a recurring decimal in the lexicon of Nigeria and this is not unconnected with the realization of the roles of SMEs in job creation, poverty alleviation and foreign exchange conservation (Jimah, 2011; Ikherehon, 2002; Akingunola, 2011). Agu (2001) defined SMEs as a business which is owned, led by one or a few persons, with direct owner(s) influence in decision making, and having a relatively small share of the market and relatively low capital requirement. The earliest manifestations of SMEs in advanced countries were coltage industries that later transformed into industrial complexes and tech factories. SMEs today account for the bulk of output in most countries today. It is also a proven job creator: the share of SMEs in global productivity is over 30% higher in some countries, but generally growing. In China, SMEs employ over 50% of the workforce while in the United States (US), SMEs account for over 50% of Gross Domestic Product (Ehinomen & Adeleke, 2012). In Nigeria, SMEs employ over 60% of the labour force both in formal and informal sectors. The need to have a regulatory body to control the activities of SMEs in the country led to the formation of Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDEN) in 2004 by an act of parliament towards the realization of the goals and objectives of SMEs. There is no doubt that SMEs play significant roles in the advancement and development of the economy. Some of these roles which have been briefly identified above remain integral to the progress of the nation. For these roles to be fully realized there is need for our educational system to fully be repositioned with the aim of accelerating the growth and development of SMEs. The establishment and management of SMEs no doubt have numerous implications on the economic development of the nation as documented by scholars in the field. The term Economic development has been defined by various scholars in different ways. According to Misra and Puri (2003), economic development means growth plus progressive changes in certain critical variables that determine the well-being of the people. They assert that there are qualitative dimensions in the development process which may be missing in the growth of a given economy expressed in terms of an increase in the national product or the product per capita. From the foregoing, it becomes obvious that economic development is far beyond the numerical growth in a nation's income which politicians often express to draw the attention of unsuspecting electorates. This growth or changes must cut across all the sectors of the economy and must be felt in the living standard of the citizens and this is what SMEs seeks to bring to reality.
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Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences
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International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS)
In Nigeria, as in many other developing and emerging economies, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribute to their socioeconomic development and growth hence, successive governments have invested resources in intervention programs aimed at stimulating the sector to achieve sustainable development. The main objectives of the study are to; review the role of SMEs to the socioeconomic development of Nigeria, identify current government efforts and challenges to stimulating SMEs performance especially as it relates to wealth creation and employment generation. The study found that; SMEs play a key role in socio economic development of the country especially in the area of employment generation and wealth creation. However, there are prevailing economic and political conditions that have not given room for SMEs to thrive, as evidenced in the internal and external challenging factors they are currently facing in the country despite the enormous government intervention initiatives. It is recommended that government should reform the implementation of these initiatives, ensure programmes continuity due to change on government, fight corruption and insecurity, improve on the business environment and evolve youth reorientation programme to cause them to embrace entrepreneurship. The methodology adopted for this work is narrative textual case study.
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