Expert counsels govts on economic framework for vocational entrepreneurs

EXECUTIVE Secretary, Millennium Village Vocational Centre, Lagos, Dr. Olusegun Omisore has urged governments at all levels to develop an economic framework for vocational entrepreneurs as a way of fast- tracking economic development in the country.

Omisore, who noted that the strides of vocational entrepreneurs in breaking barriers and building small businesses was key, stressed the need for governments at the local level to buy into growing trends in digitalisation and data capture in two folds.

He said: “This include partnership with vocational centres in their locality with a desire to have a graduating list of students with potentials. Secondly, it would ensure that business and entrepreneurial skills are taught with particular focus on money and interpeople management courses. “Third, is the setup of a financial economic framework for the target audience as critical players in the technical and creative dynamics of service delivery in various forms with daily effect on the financial spending of Nigerians.”

He said a crop of young men and women have earned big names in various fields, including fashion designing, garment fabrication, makeup and beauty therapy, brick construction, shoe designing, baking and pastries, food and catering services, event planning, and phone and computer engineering, among others. Omisore drew a line of distinction between vocational businesses ( entrepreneurs) and small and medium scale businesses ( entrepreneurs), urging governments to distinguish between the different levels of small- scale businesses.

He said: “Two- thirds of graduates of most vocational centres start as solo businesses before the thought of employing at most three to seven people, depending on the type of vocation. Interestingly, multiple taxation applies to both sides of the divide. Like small- scale businesses, vocational entrepreneurs also contribute to local economies by bringing growth and innovation to the community in which the business is established.

“They also help to stimulate economic growth by providing employment opportunities to people who may not be employable by SMES and large organisations or corporations.”

According to Omisore, most vocational entrepreneurs, with little support or economic framework from government, have engaged in the skill on skill learning/ training of fresh apprentices who pay a certain amount to engage training on the job, experience on the training and subsequent graduation especially in areas where vocational educational centres are unavailable. “It is not news that small scale businesses play a critical role in the annual generation of the nation’s GDP. In the United States of America, small businesses are the lifeblood of the US economy that creates twothirds of net new jobs and drive US economy and competitiveness. A new report shows that they account for 44 percent of the US economic activity.