Former treasurer and also former Vice-President of the World Bank, Dr Arunma Oteh, (2015 – 2018), says Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are capable of bailing Nigeria out of its multi-dimensional challenges.

Mrs Oteh made the declaration on Monday in Abuja in a lecture she delivered at the celebration of youth entrepreneurs empowered by an indigenous upstream oil and gas company, Seplat Energy Plc.

The lecture was titled: “Unleashing Nigeria’s Untapped Potential through Entrepreneurship and Sustainability.’’

She noted that any country that placed value on its SMEs and entrepreneurship already understood the formula for future successes.

She said Nigeria had lots of entrepreneurs that could be used to solve her multi-dimensional poverty and challenges.

She observed that entrepreneurs found solutions where others saw trouble, just as they are creative, innovative, tenacious, and problem solvers.

Mrs Oteh also said that Nigeria needed to surmount challenges faced by SMEs, which included unfavourable business environment, poor access to credit and epileptic power supply.

“We need to sort out power, because enterprises suffer more and the cost of doing business in Nigeria is higher than the cost of doing business in other countries.

“As an entrepreneur in Nigeria you have to provide your own electricity, water, and logistics,’’ she said.

Mrs Oteh commended Seplat Energy and its partner, the Conversation 4 Change (C4C), an NGO for the initiative to train, empower and support young entrepreneurs.

(NAN)