Prophet Solomon Alao, Supreme Head of the Cherubim and Seraphim Unification Church Worldwide, has urged President Bola Tinubu’s government to reduce cost of doing business to grow small and medium -sized enterprises.

Mr Alao, who regretted the exit of companies from Nigeria, said the reduction in the cost of doing business and providing incentives, would spur industrial growth and make room for the employment of youths.

The cleric, whose speech was on the state of the nation, made the appeal in Lagos, at the church’s news conference to herald its annual general conference scheduled to begin on Thursday in Ondo.

The conference will attract faithful from across the world, and will among other things, evaluate the progress of the church and proffer ways forward.

The cleric, who described the church as a vital component of the society that should be heeded by the state, said the subsisting high cost of doing business in Nigeria was making life difficult for people.

According to him, SMEs are the largest employer of labour, as such, incentives toward their growth should have positive bearing on the nation’s employment scale.

The C&S leader stated, “With the rate of petroleum products and other aids to trades such as transportation, high cost of import duty on raw materials, multiple taxation and dearth of electricity by October this year, the remaining struggling SMEs might close shop.

“Monopolising the business space by bigger firms should be tackled by the federal government to aid smaller ones to survive in the society.

“It is absurd for banks to trespass from their banking job to selling airline tickets and recharge cards. The smaller outfits that are into such businesses will be edged out in time, thereby throwing more people into the labour market.”

Mr Alao appealed to the government to “take more realisable steps at ensuring that the security of life and property is given priority.”

(NAN)